Best presents you'ever received/made

[Coffee Mug]

Personally I'm one of those persons who prefers giving than receiving. It gives me so much of a warm feeling inside seeing the person of wich I care being happy and smiling And of course I don't want anything back in return!

The best present that I can remember doing was for my ex boyfriend, M, for our anniversary.

I tricked him telling him that I had a surprise but that we had to go to a certain place, by car. When we arrived at that place there was a huge field in front of us and a street crossing near by. We had to stay there and wait like 20 minutes and he was getting really curious to know what it was all about. I had to think hard and invent excuses so I made up a story and told him to look up at the street and see if he could see a little van approaching, as that would be the surprise. And of course it was not. He kept on clancing at the cars passing by and vans asking, is this it? lol

As time passed I was anxiously glancing at the sky hoping that M wouldn't notice me. After a while I heard an unmistakable noise and I couldn't repress a smile. The surprise was coming and was about to land not far away from us.

As the helicopter landed a few people just stared and looked with curiosity and so did M. I stayed still for about 30 seconds as if it didn't concern us but couldn't resist more. I took his hand gently and started walking towards the field, where the helicopter was, while the enging was running, flattening all the grass around. M was puzzled and said, aren't we going too close to it?? I didn't reply. And as we were going closer and closer I began running faster and faster and then he understood. I cannot explain the joy I saw in his eyes and the look of amazement he had. He couldn't believe his eyes! He always wanted to go on a helicopter since he was a kid but never did and this was his dream come true. He sat in the front with the pilot and I sat in the back with the assistant and it was awesome. The view and the panorama was amazing and my boyfriend was really happy.

I must add that at that time I used to work as a secretary for this enterprise who worked with helicopters for transports so I knew the pilot and arranged the pick up with him

So, what about you? I'm curious to read about your best presents too They don't have to be material, just have a special meaning.

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Best present I made I don't dare guessing. I'll leave that to others to determine. I've knitted and cross-stitched a few things, but nothing too fancy.

The best present I received... difficult but I think a lovely cross-stitched bunny with icecream and a few lines of text around it, which I keep next to my bed.

[Chanel_no5]

My sister has the ability to get hold on the books I want but are out of stock everywhere. And she always gets perfect copies, looking fresh out of the store although some of them are well over 30 years old. She doesn't have a lot of money so she can't get them from anywhere fancy, but she blatantly refuses to tell me where she gets them. The best is probably when I got "Rage" by Stephen King. That one's not easy to find!

The best thing I've given... well, I have no idea.

[doggo]

Chanel your sister sounds awesome there!

I once painted my friend's cats for her just because. I'm still darn proud how they came out. And she was very happy about them too.

Another one was a tiny little dress I knit for my niece when she was born. It's a black, frilly-hemmed knit dress with a little yellow knit pouch at the front in shape of a triangle, and two white buttons - it looks like a blackbird wearing a really silly expression.

From gifts received - there are many I have cherished and do cherish, but there's something that sorta stands out... I remember when I was 10 or so and my friend (she's still my closest friend) bought me The Cure CD called Mixed Up for my birthday. It was the first CD I ever had, and I always went to my parent's bedroom to listen to it with their CD player. I was so overjoyed. At that age and during those times it wasn't a small investment either. I have gotten so many lovely things from her during the 20+ years we have known. Few years ago she also photographed me in a way that really changed my view of myself. First I was just helping her by posing for her, but in the end it ended up being such a huge thing for me. When I have really been battling my deppression and losing faith in myself, I have sometimes dug those pictures up to look at them, thinkin: I know I can be this person too.

[PuddinPop]

The best present I gave was to my current partner.

It was for his birthday in 2011. A few days before, I called a hotel at a seaside resort and booked us in for 2 nights. On the day that was his birthday, he was working in the morning until 2pm. I took this chance and went to his mum's (we weren't living together at that point) and packed enough clothes, deodrants, hair gel, phone charger, after shave, everything he would need for the next 2 days. I then put all his stuff in the boot of my car and waited for him to get home.

When he got back, I told him to have a bath, put on some nice clothes and do his hair cos we were going for a meal somewhere quite far away, but I had heard it was nice.

When he was ready, I set off driving (having to hide the sandwitches his mum made us cos we obviously weren't going for a meal!) At that moment in time, I didn't smoke in my car, so after an hour or so, we pulled into a layby and had a cigarette. He asked how much longer ill we got the restaurant because he was getting hungry (aww ) so I told him we weren't going and gave him a sandwitch (I know, I'm mean )

He looked pretty disappointed and confused, so I told him to look in the boot.

He opened the boot and gave me a deeper confused look.

Then I told him we were going to the hotel. He was like a kid at Christmas, jumping up and down and hugging me etc. And it was the most wonderful weekend I've ever had

[Smokey]

A few years ago i spent some sometime living and working in Mauritius with some quite underprivileged young people, before i left i decided to buy them something as a goodbye gift, so i got them all pendants- nothing overly special i must admit ( i wasn't earning much at all then), i'll never forget the looks on their faces when i gave them to them- they had never received a gift before and bless them they looked completely bemused by them. Naturally i thought that eventually being young people, they would either loose them or something, but recently a friend of mine went out there to work and sent me a picture of them wearing the pendants i gave six years ago ( there's a slight cynic in me telling me there not the ones i gave them- but i'm trying to ignore that ), i guess though people who don't usually receive much tend to value gifts a better though then some who frequently do .

[hay-choo]

sounds strange but.....one of the best presents I received was.....a set of things from the 1981 Ashes series, classed as 'Botham's ashes'.......It had a newspaper from that day with all the ashes talk in it, it had a dvd of the series itself, and it had Botham's Autobigraphy. It meant a lot to get that.

[_Daisy_]

The best present I've ever given was definitely to my ex...I actually wrote him a book. It's kind of difficult to top that.

The best one that I have ever received...hmmm...well, I came home over spring break to find that mom had completely re-done my room for me. That was a rather nice surprise.