What is the best gift you got, and what is the best gift you gave?

Hard to narrow down my best gifts...my hubby went way overboard what we agreed upon. I love the Lucky Brand boots he and my son picked out. They are so cute, and comfy. I'm trying to work them into my Christmas Day wardrobe but they aren't going with anything I want to wear today.

Best gift I gave...one of my former students is in the professional ballet company in my city so he got me 2 tickets to the Nutcracker for my nieces. That was very cool. I think I really out did myself on a set of cd's I made my niece. She love Broadway songs, her parents were both professional musicians/singers so she hears tons of classical music and they are very religious so she hears a lot of Christian music. She doesn't know much else. I made her an 8 CD compilation of decades...50's, 60's, 70's, 80's (2 of those since that was my era), 90's, 2000's, and just general stuff you need to have heard of before you go to college (she's 16.) I customized the labels to the generation, and I'm really hoping she loves them. There are about 125 songs and I guarantee she might only know 20 of them. I'm soooo jazzed about it.

I made mom a home made scarf with all her favorite colors in it. I also got my mom new piano books, because piano is her passion.

The best gift I got was Ugg Boots from my BF. They are super toasty and warm, and make great houseslippers.

The rest of the gifts I gave/got are the typical sweaters, hot chocolate mix, books, fitness stuff etc.

Best gift I got...all of the Planet of the Apes movies (minus the remake from 2001).

Best gift I gave...well, I gave my mom an iPod nano...gave my brother Dumbledore's wand. I think that's a tie.

I got my mom a gift card to add more books to her kindle, my sister an itunes card and some bath stuff, and my nana itunes cards and some accessories for her ipod.

But the best things I gave were definitely for my best friend. She is a fitness instructor, so I got on cafepress and designed a tank top with all of her most used sayings in class on it. She loved it. I also got her a gorgeous ring that I found on black friday. I got her a "The B Word" calendar and made her a photo album of all the best pictures of us together. Then some little odds and end stocking stuffers.

The best thing I got was my Keurig, I'm so excited! I've already had like 3 cups of coffee today I'm so excited to test out the different k-cups.

Best gift I got... the Vera Bradly backpack I have been wanting FOREVER, or my Canon Powershot camera

Best gift I gave... I got my BFF a pair of really cute earmuffs with built in headphones. She loved them

Best gift I got: It's silly, but my roomie and good friend bought me an elephant hoodie, with elephant ears on the hood. They're my favourite animals, and it's goofy and adorable. Also my parents gave me $1500 for a girls' trip to Vegas at some point, which is awesome too. And I'm buying myself an Xbox 360 and a Kinect tomorrow.

Best gift I gave: I burned 50 DVDs for my coworker Secret Santa, all childhood favourites, after I heard him talking about wanting to buy all the old Disney movies and stuff he watched when he was a kid. He loved it.

Best I gave: Patchwork Coach purse to my mom. Neither of us are big on designer stuff, we tend to bargain shop, so when I saw her favorite Coach purse at the outlet for literally 75% off, I had to get it!

Best I got: I'm going to the Galapagos and then traveling South/Central America with my parents this year and I've been saving up all of my money (which is hard with tuition and a mortgage...) and my parents gave me a $4,000 voucher towards the trip. HOLLER! So now I only have to pay $5,000

Best gift I got: A top quality boom mic stand so I can practise with a mic at home.

Best gift I gave: An interactive globe for Elijah. He hasn't stopped playing with it. He's a geography nerd in the making!

Helen

^The best present I have ever been given in my life was a Collins Children's Atlas from my aunt who was a schoolteacher, for one of my birthday's in the late 80's. I know it was the late 80's because it still had USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, etc, in it. While I didn't become a geography student, I did spend HOURS every night poring over it, a love that has translated into me spending HOURS exploring Google Maps. That's a great gift, Helen!

I gave: Mark and I a Wii which I bought from a friend of mine.
My sister a lovely necklace and a muffin recipe book.
Her boyfriend got a sampler pack of local craft beers from Mark and I.
Dad got from my sister and I a memory book we filled in ourselves, and a couple of shirts from City Beach.
My cousin Alyce got a hamper of lovely scented bathroom things.
And my aunt Noreen we gave a loaf of home-baked sourdough.

I got: A leopard print maxi dress from my housemate Susannnah.
A pair of black Roman-style sandals and a lovely apron and oven mitt from my sister.
A black and white striped floppy hat from Mark.
A black and yellow woven clutch purse from my cousin.
A box of Cadbury Milk Tray from my Great Aunty Gert.
Cash money and a scarf my Dad bought while he was in Thailand in October.
And the Wii that Mark and I bought.

Between the two of us we also got a gift card to a linen and homewares store from Mark's parents, a calendar full of pictures of Mark's little niece from his sister and brother-in-law, and a Cuisinart ice cream maker from same. DELICIOUS.

Erin.
::righteous babe::

I was thoroughly, thoroughly spoiled this year.

The best gifts I gave were the amigurumis I made: a cammo cuttlefish for my cammo-loving, spearfishing BiL; two Gir figures for my Invader-Zim loving SiL; a teeny tiny knitted K-9 for my Doctor-Who loving man; and a crocheted, light-up remote-control Dalek for my dad. Handmade gifts for the win!

And coming in a close second: tix for my man to see the MSO Doctor Who symphony. And a catnip mouse for the cat.

The gift I was most gobsmacked by this year was a Roomba. OMG. It's always been a joke thing with us, because I hate vacuuming (and the handle is too short for me - hurts my back) but they're so expensive I could never ever justify buying one.

I also got some great CDs, movies and really interesting looking books and some cool kitchenware (including a personalised cookbook and aprons!).

Thoroughly, thoroughly spoiled!

The best gift I received was my dog. We rescued him from a kill shelter in vegas, he's a four year old maltese and after being told we'd never have another dog, being allowed to adopt him a few weeks ago made my year.. under the tree, my best was a sub/amp for my car! I am so stoked. My great grandma also knitted me a really rad blanket, which was so, so nice.

The best gifts we gave this year was my Mom and I flying out my older brother home as a surprise to my dad and my uncle home as a surprise to my grandma. The looks on their faces were my favourite thing ever, and there's really nothing like having everyone together for christmas.

We had a non-traditional Hindu-Jewish Christmas here with my parents and fiance, and also caught up with friends who are abroad by video chat. So it was a lovely day with friends and family.

Best gifts I gave:
1) a hand-made scarf to my fiance (pictured). It's a modified version of this scarf.

2) a dress I made for my mom. I'll post pics some other time, I haven't taken any yet. It needs some adjustments so isn't fully complete, but it was in good enough shape to be presentable. I did as much as I could without having my mom try it on.

Best gifts I got:
1) the latest book from my favorite author, Deborah Levy; and a magnetic pin cushion, both given by my fiance. My fiance had a vested interest in the pin cushion, since he managed to step on a pin on in the carpet while I was working on item 2 above!

2) lots of stuff from my parents. Mostly useful things like socks, slippers, gloves. Got a blocking board for my knitting, and pinking shears to cut fabric without having the edges fray on me. And lots of good chocolates, marzipan etc.

In all it was a wonderful Christmas!

I honestly think I just received the best present I could ever dream of.

I have only known one of my grandparents (the rest either disowned my half of the family or passed away before I was born).
My grandma never talks about her life experiences and family history, no matter how much I pry and try and pull information out of her.

Tonight as we were sitting around the fire, Grandma suddenly opened up and told me about her mother, her father, her grandmother (who had her first birthday cake when she was 70), Christmas with her siblings (her favorite present was a black board), having her tonsils out. On and on she recounted snippets of her life.
This information means more to me than all the material gifts in the world. Thank you Granny.

Best present I got was cold hard cash, wrapped up in an empty toilet roll to look like a christmas cracker. Cash is awesome.


Best present I gave was to my dad. He works for lifeline as a suicide phone counseller, so I made a donation on his behalf and just put the recepit in a card. Simple, but it made him teary.

I didn't get much this year, but I didn't ask for anything. My mom bought hubby and I a pressure cooker and I think it will be pretty awesome for making quick dinners now that I'm back at work full-time.

Best given, professional photobooks for my parents, and siblings of all the major family events that my hubby has photographed since 2008. (He's a photographer). It was a fun trip down memory lane seeing how much the family has grown in the past few years.

Best was a large cheque from my boyfriends Grandma. I was so incredibly appreciative, it almost covered my tuition for school next semester.

Best I gave was probably just all the little silly stocking stuffers I got for my boyfriend.

The best present I received was two books my hubby gave me, In Classical Style a beautiful picture book about ABT and Apollo's Angels.

Best one to see received was our kids, we gave our daughter a new iPod with her name engraved on the back, that won't get muddled up at competitions . Our youngest sons have already had their main present, they were computers, nice gaming ones that Tim built for them. On Christmas day they had rockets that they'll be able to launch once the wind drops.

Our eldest son was preparing for a visitation so he wasn't with us yesterday, we should see him soon.

The best gift I gave was a tie between my mom's Kindle (my brother and I got her that, my sister got her the cover and my dad the light) or Dave's present. His main present was that I adopted him a Penguin at Chester zoo. We both love Penguins, and Chester and we got loads of tickets to go and visit the zoo. he seemed super happy which is good.

I also got him all of the episodes of Man Vs Food as we both love the show

The best present I received....that's a really hard one!

My mom got me a freezer (a mini chest one that fits in my flat) that I got about a month or so ago that I love.

Dave got me a stocking full of really random stuff that was cool. It included (among other things) a banana box, princess make-up kit, cow hot water bottle, pens on clips (I always lose mine!), a chinese lantern, a cow notebook, a six pack of wotsits...just awesome lol!

But my main present was a bread maker and some recipe books (I got recipe books of everyone!) that I really wanted! I'm super happy and cant wait to start making bread in it this week

MOOM