Sure, we already have a thread for the presents you got, but I want to know what the best present was that you gave someone else this year.
Mine was a necklace and earring set I made my mom. Mom’s always been…unenthusiastic about the jewelry I make. In fact, one year, she specifically asked me not to make her anything when I told her I was making a bunch of stuff for people. (That was kind of rude, but hey, if my stuff doesn’t do it for her, okay.)
This year she had a beautiful and expensive set on her wishlist which was just way out of my budget. But I made her something very similar. Not identical, but similar colors and the same style, based on the picture. She LOVED them! And she even loved that I made them. “Wait…you *made *this?!” she kept saying in disbelief.
So not only was she happy with the gift, but she seems to grok now that I can make things in many styles, even hers! Validation *and *shiny sparkly things, what could be better?
Well, it wasn’t by any stretch the most expensive present I gave but it was the best received. I got my nephew’s (relatively) new girlfriend a celtic knot sterling silver bangle. She absolutely loved it and hasn’t taken it off since. She comes from a kind of odd family and I think she enjoyed sharing Christmas Eve with us more than she did spending Christmas Day with her mom and her third husband…
in my opinion it was the 23" LCD monitor I gave my mom to replace the blurry old smear-fest that was the one she had (some old Gateway LCD that has a response time you can measure with a desk clock.)
the best received was the wrist watch I gave my grandmother, in that the one she had just happened to start acting up this week.
My wife was up late on Christmas Eve trying to finish up baking cookies, and was upset that she wasn’t going to have time to sweep and mop the kitchen floor before we had a houseload of family showing up on Christmas morning. So I got up early and swept and mopped the kitchen for her so she could sleep late. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal but she said it was the best Christmas present she ever got.
I didn’t expect a roommate for a couple of years, but she came early. I’d planned to get her the Alien tetrology, but she mentioned she’d already bought the first two movies. So I just got her an REI membership and a $50 REI gift card. Her birthday was Thanksgiving, and since she was coming up early this month I gave it to her when she got here. She really, really likes it. Last Summer she mentioned she wished she still had the flying parka she was issued in Korea. So I ordered her an Alpha Industries N-2B. She’s been wearing it a lot. (Oh, she likes the REI membership and gift card too.)
EDIT: The price of that roller coaster went up just under twenty bucks since I ordered it! :eek:
The kids each received a Nintendo DS game: our son got Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, and our daughter got the Lego Star Wars Complete Saga. I think those made them the happiest: although they also received some books that they loved.
Me, my sisters, and my niece and nephew had a photographer take a bunch of pictures of us and array them in two very large partitioned frames for my mom. She thought it was the best present she’s received in years.
Oddly the harmonica I tucked into my son’s stocking as a bit of a joke was a hit. He had one when he was 10 and loved it - I thought it would be a nice bit of nostalgia, something he would put on a shelf but he practiced for a couple of hours after opening it and was playing tunes.
For my daughter the Paris guidebook I bought. For her it was not only that it’s helpful and interesting but that buying it means I support her gulp solo trip to Paris in February.
I bought my 2yo niece the Leapfrog Tag Junior with assorted books. It’s a little device that reads its books aloud when put on the text. She loves being read to, and I’m not always there.
She seemed to really love it, but I think the two lip balms that I gave her might possibly have been more popular. She’d play hard for about ten minutes, then suddenly stop and say, “Where mah lipsticks?”
One of my sisters loves gadgets. I got her a pair of cashmere gloves that have a special fabric on the tip of the index finger and the thumb that allow the wearer to use a smart phone or ipad or ipod while wearing the gloves. She LOVES them.
I made my sister-in-law a hostess apron. It’s a reproduction of a 1950’s Vogue pattern. I worked very hard on it and she absolutely adored it. That made me feel very good.
Was very excited that this year I gave:
Son #1 - iPod
Son # 2 - DSi
Boyfriend - Nook
Boyfriends daughter - Pandora bracelet
They got other stuff too, mostly electronic/gaming related, but those were the main presents I was excited to give! Also, I gave my parents cash. Not sentimental but I loved being able to give to them for a change.
I got my sister these boots, and my daughter an iPod Classic, engraved with “Merry Christmas Kid’sName! You lose this, I keel you!!!” They were both quite pleased.
I gave my brother, a math professor, a necktie with equations written all over it. I bought online it without getting a really detailed look at it, so I had assumed it had the same few items repeated. But it had the equivalent of pages of equations and formulas, and my brother spent half the evening going over it. So, based on recipient feedback, that was probably the best gift I gave.
I did really well with my son, who is hard to buy for (12 year old boy) - he unwrapped stuff he wanted that he didn’t even know he wanted. Best one was a set for disc golf that he’d played at camp and loved - then forgot about. He even looked like he’d read the BOOKS I found for him.
A few years ago at my church’s craft sale, my father was admiring wood urns - those lovely hand turned things. And this year that was what my parents got.
