What's the best gift you've ever gotten or given?
 

When Mrs. Dar and I were newlyweds, we would try to outdo each other as to how much we loved each other. "I love you higher than a skyscraper" etc. We ended up, of course, with "I love you infinity" -- which we've been using ever since.

Last year I bought her an infinity bracelet (a mobius strip made of silver). I'm pretty proud of that one.

Mrs. Dar gave me a PC toolkit many years ago that I absolutely loved. Mostly because it wasn't on my list, but she knew I'd like it.

I also got a Swiss Army knife one year from my Mom. That also was unexpected and has been well loved.

My hubby loves toasty bathrobes. He wore his old one to death some years ago and we never replaced it because he could never find a bathrobe that had all of his "requirements":
Hood.
Long sleeves.
Deep pockets.
Tie not attached.
Super long length.

The bathrobes we found were usually lacking in the super-long-length department as they mostly came only to just below the knees.

So, I bought a pattern and altered it to make it super long...and I made him a robe out of fleece with a hood, and long sleeves, and deep pockets, and a non-attached tie AND a length that came down to his ankles!

He loved it and had no clue that I had been making it for him. I find him wrapped up in it on the couch...with only his nose peeking out of the hood and his slippered toes barely peeking out of the hem.
:D

My wedding ring.

Multiple orgasm.

ahhh..... you're a treasure, hoof, you really are. I sincerely hope your man knows how lucky he is.

As for me.... I think the best I got was from the Current Wife on my 50th - a totally unexepected weekend at Portmerion.

I got a huge fat 1000 page book on charts from my partner a couple of days ago.

In the mail all the way from Canada I recieved a white wool jacket with a Rush patch on the sleave plus a couple other things.

I'll post a picture of them later since I am very proud of these guys who make me feel so incredibly loved and that is the best gift.

I think I would have to say a bouquet of flowers that I gave Mrs. Dallas in 1994. It was opening night of her conducting The Gondoliers.

Sounds fairly commonplace, except that I was playing in the orchestra. What this meant was that we were at home together, we drove together in the same car, we were setting up music stands, etc. etc. etc. We were never apart for the whole evening.

Even so, she didn't see the flowers until after the show and was completely surprised by them. She still talks about how (pleasantly) shocking it was.

There was also the time I sent her flowers at work for Valentine's Day when she was working in Center City Philadelphia. So she had to carry the flowers home on the subway, and apparently attracted a satisfying level of jealousy from other women.

Along the same jealous vein, her birthday was this past Tuesday. I took the afternoon off to take her to lunch in Philadelphia. This seemed to not be a big deal--something nice, surely, and something we don't get to do that often, but not something to write home about in shock and amazement. Yet the other moms at the bus stop were all fawning over me & being so impressed that I'd do something like that. (I find this something of a cause for concern--I don't need to cause more trouble with the other men in the neighborhood!)

Nice guys really do finish first - where it counts. :)

If they are REALLY nice, they make sure their partner finishes first. ;-)

I bought my parents tickets to see Turandot, which isn't staged very often. They were expensive - relatively, I had the money for them at the time - so it's something they wouldn't have seen if it wasn't for me.

My Mum was grateful when she opened them, "Oh you shouldn't" etc etc, but it was her face on the night, when they got back home that stays with me. I wish I could make her look like that every night.

And my Dad's whispered, "Thank you. We both cried our eyes out"

Honestly, my wife and I have exchanged some great ones in our time. Quite a few hand-mades. Some well written ones and some trips.
I don't think of a wedding or our relationship as a gift.
I'm a dude, my memory is not specific like that, they were all great and wonderful.

One of the best, and can be redone every year, is put money on their account at the vets.;)

I gave my folks a trip to Hawaii for their anniversary but they were going until spring so I gave them dolls for Christmas.

Probably the gift I gave, that brought me the most pleasure, was a puppy.:blush:

aww so sweet!

Those are great gifts Bruce. I love what you did with those dolls.

[edited out spiel about red flags. Thanks steve]

In my experience, if flags are going off, there's always a reason.

People are weird about money. If I pick up a video game for $25, Mrs. Dallas will often give me "a look." She'll never say anything and she'll never admit it, but I know she thinks I shouldn't spend the money "frivolously." On the other hand there are certain expenditures relating to clothing and lunches out with friends that I would never make myself and consider equally frivolous, but are just natural for her.

thanks Steve

My mother gave me a wonderful gift last year. ...almost EXACTLY a year ago...12/03/05.

She paid just over $300 for front row tickets for Hubby and I to see the Spanish Riding School of Vienna's Lippizan Stallions perform in Atlanta. This tour was commemorating the 60th Anniversary of General Patton's rescue of the horses from the Riding School during WWII. The SRSV had not been to America in 20 years, or so. Certainly not in the past 15.

It was a very special evening for me. The horses were beautiful and the announcer imparted a lot of history between arena performances. I also met General Patton's grandson, who was the Celebrity Guest that evening. We were seated next to the Celebrity Box seats.

What BEAUTIFUL horses! I certainly appreciated the gift, though someone not horse-crazy would probably not understand.

See. I think those are the best gifts. Generic gifts are ok and I will never turn one down. But the very best gifts are often the ones that are perfect because the giver knows you so well.

Those are some very fine puppies. And the dog is cute, too.

The best gift I ever got from Life/The Universe/Everything was my son back from the verge of death or lifelong paralysis. The best gift in the traditional sense was my Martin HD 28 from Selene some years ago. I totally did not expect it.

When Judah and I were 18 and newly living together, we had very little money. As far as I was concerned, he was in agreement that as we had literally no money at that point, I wasn't going to be getting a present. He managed without my knowing to get hold of a fiver and went to a shop that was selling giant heartshaped, helium balloons. Valentines day balloons with 'I Love You' on them. My birthday is 23rd Feb, so he was able to buy one of the balloons for four pounds:P

Surprised the hell out of me, waking up to a giant 'I love you' balloon, tied to the foot of the bed.

Best present I ever had.

mmmmm..... I once woke up to a happy surprise along those lines.... no balloon's involved though...

perv :P

jealous.....

cardigan envy :P

I think it's the buttons.

nope, the pockets....definately the pockets. Unless its a pocketless cardie, in which case it's probably the buttons.

Maybe it's what's in the pockets? (or what might be)

ooooh.....I'll have to mull on that..