The gift that I shall never forget was not even for me,,it was for my landlady....

I was inb the Air Force and just recently married when I got my orders to go to Germany. Since I was still on my first enlistment I did not qualify for base housing so my wife & I rented a tiny 3rm apartment downtown. Our landlady was 80 yrs old and didn't speak a word of English but we managed to convey all the necessary information back and forth...

One evening about a week before Christmas when I came in from work I noticed a small package about 8" square in the front hall near the stairs where I went up to my apartment on the 3rd floor. The package was clearly address to Frau Clemens, our landlord and as is required of all overseas packages it had a customs declaration tag attached saying it was a Christmas Gift. The return address was from an Airman First Classs in the States, but I knew that he had been the former tenant before my wife and I moved in.

That package stayed right there in the corner until well after the first of the year, so when I went down to pay my rent I pointed it out to the landlady and said that it was for her...

She immediately got a really panicked look on her face and started shouting .."Das ist giftlich, das is nicht fur mere"

Failing to understand what she was going on about, the next day when I got to work I went to one of my German civillian workers and asked him what "Giftlich" meant? To my utter amazement, in German the word Gift means "Poison" and to emphasize that he pointed to some little red boxes that they set out in the warehouse as rat traps. Sure enough, on the top of each box it was clearly labled Poison/Gift.

Suddenly I understood my landladies fear of the box and I explained it to my German friend at work. Then I explained that when we send a package overseas we have to attach a customs tag explaining what the item is, so customs can determine if their is any tax or duty due on it, but if we are sending a present we put the word "Gift" on the tag, which in English denotes a present.

After work I convinced my German friend to stop by my house and explain it to my landlady and once she understood she looked so relieved...That lady was without question the worlds best landlady but when a package showed up with the word "poison" on it, she was thinking that she had in some way offended the previous tenants and they were trying to do away with her.

The best gift remember the most, was the cry of my firstborn - he wasn't developing as he should while in utero and the Pediatrician felt it was wisest to end the pregnancy - my husband and I said a resounding 'no', and the pregnancy carried on. When he was delivered, he was PERFECT - his cry meant everything to me and I can still mentally hear it 40 years later! Today, he is one of the most brilliant men I know, as are my other two boys!!!

Other than my wonderful parents I would say it would be my husband. He is my greatest gift.

Our most wonderful 'gift' is our son, entrusted to us by his loving birthmother over forty years ago. He chose a wise and beautiful wife. They have enriched our lives with a DGS (7) and a DGD (19 mos.).

My oldest daughter "created" a Mothers book at age 4 1/2. It's just 4 pages stapled together, with pictures she drew.

Way to precious to ever give up.

Moni

PS, she is now 37.

Material gift - when we were kids we pretty much told what we were getting for Christmas to each other. One year I wanted an aquarium. My sister said yes - you are getting it and told me where it was. Christmas eve the aquarium was still behing the clothes hamper. I got up Christmas morning and the biggest goldfish I ever saw was swimming in the fully set-up and decorated aquarium. How mom pulled that off, I still don't know.
Non-material gifts.
Pap was sick and couldn't talk anymore. I was away and came home to see him and he looked at me and said "Hi there Kashy" which was what he called me.
My aunt B went in alone - and nothing..
No one believed me that he spoke so my mom and aunt went in the next time with me. My aunt asked if he knew her name and he said "Betty!" He was fine - just an onery bugger.
Mom was dying and I got a strange gift. She hallucinated on a new medicine and was happy as a clam. She saw "Mamma Happy Bear" and laughed and laughed. I didn't think I would ever hear her laugh again. My sister laughed and laughed with her.
Weeks later when she was not saying much at all, she turned and looked at me and said "boy, I'm going to miss you" I was so glad we got to say I love yous. That was a wonderful gift.

I only tapped in to the original poster's words and a couple of post after.....Glad in a way I didn't read them all.
To me a true gift that was given was when I was a very young girl from an abusive home. I met a family and they gave me LOVE, the mom also gave me a poem that I still give out to friends all these years later.
Thanks STELLA....I love you in return....and always will :)

Best gift ever and one I will never forget was from my DDIL.
I have been an avid New York Yankee fan for at least 62 years.
My dream since 5th grade was to attend a game in Yankee Stadium.
DH and I went back to visit my son and DDIL and grandson several years ago.
She had box seat tickets on line with home plate and one section away from the Yankees dugout for us. This was the last year they were in the old stadium. It was magical for me.......I get teary eyed just thinking about how thoughtful DDIL was....and still is.
I went a Yankees game when they played the Angels seeing Mickey Mantle in his last season (in Anaheim) but being in Yankee Stadium
on a fall night was wonderful....I cannot describe in words what I felt.
Now my dreams include a game at the new stadium!

I grew up in the 1940s and money was scarce in our farming community. Most of my gifts were not expensive, and some were hand made. However, each gift was thoughtful and none frivilous. But most of all, these gift meant that someone ahd thought of me and cared, and best if all, these gifts were for me. These gifts represented a ray of sunshine in an otherwise drab life.

My Godmother always gave me a little something each Christmas. One year, she gave me a fountain pen. To me, that was golden; to mom, it meant spoiled shirts with ink stained pockets. In those days, fountain pens, in the hands of a little boy, spelled disaster. But to me, It was a grown-up thing that I could poudly display and use. Another gift I remember from my Godmother was a simple autograph book (Remeber those?). Here it is a lifetime later and I still have that little book. It has signatures and wisecracks from classmates in grade school. I dug it out the other day and realized that several who had made entries in that book have passed on.

Yes, I do remember this gift, and it did make an impression on me else it would have been discarded a long ago. When I see it, I am reminded of my Godmother, my boyhood, and my caring parents.

"Life" is so wonderful. While watching TV this evening I was looking through a box of cards...a friend just passed away and I needed a sympathy card. I "found" the sweetest gem of a card from my DH on some anniversary some time ago. The words are so beautiful and are words that I believe he means to say every day....but life gets in the way. What a treasure of a gift....words.... that give me goosebumps and mean so much every time I run across that card.

One of the things that I've always wanted to do was hold and give a bottle to a baby tiger cub. A few years ago my husband gave me the opportunity to experience that very thing!

It was an outdoor/sporting goods show and they had cubs on display. My DH and his friend were there on Saturday and people were being handed a cub just long enough to get their photo taken, pay their $15.00 and leave. Money changed hands on Saturday and when he got home he told me we (he and I) were gonna go back the next day. I was going to get to hold a tiger and play with it for about thirty minutes! (It wasn't giving it a bottle, but it was a thrill.)

We got there early, walked in with all the vendors, etc. The "tiger man" was there with a smile on his face and said, "They're just now getting up. You want to give one a bottle while I feed the other?" (Is the Pope Catholic!? LOL)

Have the photos hanging on a wall in my kitchen. They were giving out cards that said "I Touched a Tiger". I put the photos in a frame together with one of the cards and then I printed off the words "And a tiger touched me..."

Still makes tears in my eyes. DH definitely made Brownie Points with THAT gift! LOL

In the 1970's I had a neighbor and dear friend that was an invalid for all his life. He and I shared a love of animals. I sat with him for countless hours discussing, reading, watching, all about animals. I had to move away, but kept in close touch with him. When he passed away in 1982 I was heart broken. Several months passed, then I recieved a large box in the mail. In the box was the complete collection of 12 Lenox Wildlife plates that I had helped him order over a period of a couple years. The box came from the lady who cared for him. A note inside read, "I know of the love of animals that you and LeRoy shared. When he bought these plates, it was his intention that when he died, that you should have them. Please enjoy them, as he enjoyed all the hours that you gave to him"

I do enjoy them, they remind me of him and his wonderful spirit that that never wavered. He still inspires me daily.

My first horse....for my 11th birthday....all the happy memories of my childhood and teenage years revolved around him.

Another favorite was a video that a friend gave me for Christmas one year. We had been friends for 30 years and shared many interests, but not movies. When the video started to play, I heard some really hokey western music. Then I saw some cows. Then some chickens....then horses. My horses. And my husband and I when we were
a whole lot younger. She had taken a bunch of 8 mm films and had them edited and anything that pertained to my husband and me, she had put on the video. I hadn't recognized the cows...which had been our cows...or our chickens, but when it got to the horses...I certainly recognized them. By then they had all passed on....so it was especially sweet to have a video of them. I had forgotten that over the years she had filmed a lot at our place and when we were over there visiting her.

I spent some time fostering my beloved niece in high school. She later married and had 4 boys. She was killed in a car accident 8 yrs ago at the age of 32. I always think of life in terms of before and after the accident.

Her dh remarried a wonderful girl fairly quickly. It was a blessing and we love her. The boys love her. They needed her.

A few months ago we were all at my moms house and I was in one of the back bedrooms. He came back there and told me he had something for me. He gave me a 5 page letter and a card that had been homemade on a computer. Apparently, he had just been able to finally go through the rest of her things and had found this letter to me.

The letter expressed so much..... It was a blessing to get it after all these years. One of thhe most precious gifts I have ever recieved.

My GrandPap died when I was just a teenager. He and I were best buddies.
He always smoked a pipe and I think of him everytime I smell some wonderful tobacco.
When he passed and his posessions divided, the only thing I wanted was his pipe. By some miracle I got it. (family drama notwithstanding)

Fast forward many years...my (then) husband endured many stories about me and Pap.
He knew about the pipe I had tucked away in my dresser for safe keeping.
One year my ex-DH got that pipe out without my knowing. He then went set out to find out Paps favorite tobacco brand and bought an antique tin.
For Christmas he gave me a glass dome and inside sat the pipe on a stand, a tin of half & half tobacco, along with a picture of Pap inside the glass.
ExDH said the memory deserved more respect than a dresser drawer...the man did have his moments.
That was the most thought-filled gift I ever recieved.

I have two. The first was a gift from my parents, either for my wedding or my first anniversary - I can't remember since that was almost 50 years ago! Anyway, they had very little money and no "nice" things like china, silver, crystal, etc. I was 18 when I married and we had a nice wedding with a registry for all the proper things that married women thought they should have back in the day. I got a lot of my china but none of the accessory pieces. They gave me the sugar and creamer in my china pattern and it cost about $25, which was a lot more money then than now. I sold my china about 20 years ago since I never used it but I didn't sell the sugar and creamer.

The second was my Christmas gift from my husband when I was 27 years old with 2 children. As I said before, I grew up with my family not having much money, and I never had a bicycle. That Christmas, my husband gave me my very first bicycle! He sneaked it in the house after I went to bed Christmas Eve and it was propped up by the tree when I came downstairs Christmas morning!