Over the years, W. has given me lots of gifts - Christmas, birthday, Valentine's Day, there have been more than twenty years of events to mark. I still have the gray and black silk scarf that was the first present he ever gave me.
Plenty of times, he's given me something that he really wants for himself (don't we all?) - like more kitchen knives than anyone really needs.
But there are two things that stand out, two things I still have and that I regard with great fondness.
For Christmas one year, many years ago, when I had a low-paying non-profit job and he was free-lancing and we had no money, he bought me a pair of scissors. Just a pair of scissors. But they're hefty, sharp sewing shears with a comfortable red handle that well fits my hand. At the time, and for some time thereafter, I needled him endlessly about the scissors. But, I've grown an inordinate fondness for them and it pleases me to pick them up when I embark on some fabric-centered craftiness.
The best, though, was on Valentine's Day 2002. My sister had her second baby in the late evening on 2/13/02. A couple of hours later, my brother-in-law called to announce the birth. It was about 2:00 in the morning, and it was now Valentine's Day. Because we were awake, and because he was bursting with excitement knowing the perfection of the gift, W. fetched his Valentine's present for me. An iPod. The first generation iPod. It was well and truly a wonderful gift. I'd been lusting after it, but I was too abstemious to indulge myself. And his palpable exhilaration added to the all around thrill of that moment in the wee hours of the morning. I loved that gift. I loved loading it up with music and hitting shuffle and going to town. I love it.
I still have that iPod. Its battery is nearly shot, but it works fine when plugged in, so this past Christmas it became the all-Christmas-music playback device. I can't ever part with it even though it's no longer in daily use.
Some gifts are just right - sometimes immediately, and sometimes because they grow on you.
What's the most idiosyncratic gift you've ever gotten?
This post was inspired by the Parent Bloggers Network and GetInHerHead.
19 April 2008
The Gifts To The Magpie
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17 comments:
My biggest surprise and one of my best gifts ever was when my husband gave me a gift certificate for an eyebrow waxing and facial at a super high-end salon in La Jolla for me and a friend.
It was special because it meant he had been listening when I said, "I've always wanted to go to the Anastacia Salon." as we were driving through La Jolla one day. Also, because he recognized that having a friend would make the experience so much better.
Right before our wedding, The Daver bought me a Movado Ono sapphire and diamond necklace.
It's probably the best and nicest gift I've ever gotten.
You had to do this just for the title alone!
I loved the gift YOU gave me actually. It was such a fun surprise.
My paternal grandmother gave the weirdest gifts. One of the best was a plant-watering hose designed to attach to a kitchen faucet and snake all over the house to wherever the plants were.
my dad gave the same thing for every wedding, the most practical gift ever in his book, useful for ever so many things: a stainless steel bucket. i was special, so i got an extra-large.
my youngest cousin has a wedding coming up, and he will get one, too, even though dad is gone. all our kids will get them, when the time comes.
My favorite gift from my husband was the one he gave me the year he got it right. After nasty gold-plate mass-produced necklaces, and bad clothing, and high-tech stuff for himself, he got me a silver toast rack. It was perfect, and silver, and it was a place to put my toast, were I to eat any. I love special objects designed around specific foods, and when they are silver so much the better.
My husband is not so good with the gifts but this last year on my birthday he got it right.
A beautiful chandelier that hangs in our bedroom. I adore it.
When I was 8 my brother gave me a plastic sheep. On wheels. Most stupid thing I have ever seen.
But I still have it. And still remember the look on his face when he gave it to me, 5yrs old and so proud of himself. I am ashamed to say I called him an idiot and threw it at his head.
My husband is an incredibly thoughtful gift giver. One night before a formal event in medical school, he brought me to the empty hospital auditorium that housed a grand piano. He gave me a private concert- Moonlight Sonata - that he had practiced for weeks. Sitting there in my dress, I felt like a princess. How could I have not married him?
Mine's a grow-on-me gift: When I was 18 and living in Des Moines with my boyfriend, I spent an obscene amount of money on him for Christmas. And he got me one pair of woolen clogs. At the time, I felt jilted. However, a few (ahem. YES. just a few.) years later, I still have those shoes. The toes are worn through and the soles are nearly worn off and they are my very very very favorites.
well, tons of shark stuff, of course.
for our wedding we agreed that we would buy each other a gift, but spend no more than $20. My husband bought me The Princess Bride. How sweet was that?
That pair of scissors does sound like a wonderful gift, in the end.
The oddest gift I ever got was a guinea pig. As a wedding gift. (We didn't register for one, by the way.)
My then-boyfriend-now-husband gave me a baseball cap for Valentine's Day once. I was ticked - here I was away at college as my friends received cards and flower deliveries.
But I still have that hat. And the hubby. =)
My poor T gets razzed because I always ask for practical things - pots and pans, a dust-buster, cutting boards - and all his friends, family, and co-workers tell him I'm going to leave him if he gets me these things. Really, though, they're what I want. The best gift he ever gave me? Two words: Titanium Spork.
I love, love, love my titanium spork!!!
Perhaps I should be medicated.
Shade and Sweetwater,
K
When I was 18, I had a Pontiac Firebird, named Annabelle. And the guy I was dating at the time was REALLY INTO CARS (no...I mean REALLY) so he bought me a set of wirespoked tire rims for Christmas. They were...interesting.
But then he ran out of money after Christmas and wouldn't put them on the car for me (it cost $10 a tire to have them mounted). I had given him a record player, and I kept asking him how he would have felt if I gave him the record player with no needle in it. (I know how badly I'm dating myself by the way) He eventually broke down. And then I dumped him.
I once gave my husband a gorilla suit for his birthday. He had always wanted one. It's been considered the benchmark of gift-giving in our household since.
His most perfect gift to me was a white linen nightgown with a red plaid, flannel robe. I couldn't love them more.
Someone once wrote a novel in which the main character was a thinly-fictionalized version of me. That was by far the best gift I've ever gotten.
My most recent best gift is knowing someone who uses abstemious so perfectly. : )
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