What is the best gift you have ever given?

I think the gift I gave that was most appreciated, and unexpected, was an old (late 1940's?) TLR camera (A ricoflex I think it was called?).
I know nothing about cameras at all, but I was browsing an antique mall with a close friend one day and he was ogling these 4 TLR cameras, saying he had always wanted one. However, he'd made me promise not to let him buy anything in there before we went in; he has a habit of spending waaay too much money in these places. So I didn't let him buy one. A couple days later I went back and bought one of them, and gave it to him the next weekend. He was very surprised!

My love ......

My Mum is a keen amateur photographer, but sometimes struggles to find inspiration. About a year and a half ago, I offered to set her 365 themes to work through in the coming year. I wrote 365 words, phrases and instructions on small slips of paper and dropped them into a box. They covered a lot of topics, e.g. "red", "67", "fake a UFO photo", "paradox", "437 steps from the front door" and so on. She did pretty well with those themes, but felt that doing one a day was a bit much. Her birthday was in May and she was coming towards the end of her first year's themes, so I decided to make her birthday present 52 new challenges for her to complete over the coming year. This time, I decided to make the themes a little more abstract, so used actual items which I wrapped and presented to her in a box. She gets to open one mini-gift a week and has to come up with at least one good photo relating to that theme a week. There's some very random things in the box. So far she's had a bag full of hand-made painted paper ribbons, a packet of neon party balloons, five matches, a print of a Picasso painting, a Peter Rabbit clip that she gave me for my third birthday, a bag of marbles, some bubble mix, and a small sachet of shampoo. I've already forgotten a lot of the rest of the things that I put in there! There's some rubbish, and some tat, but a few really nice things too. I enjoyed putting it together, she was excited to get it, she gets to explore it for an entire year and will hopefully end up with some really fantastic photos that she can keep forever

Though they were less expensive than the diamond engagement ring that I gave to my wife, I guess it would be a pair of diamond earrings of almost the same value...also, I gave a camcord to my partner one Christmas in the early 1990's...when they were as big as an actual movie camera. My parents, also, received a number of quality gifts but I contributed to those with all of my siblings.

love and support!

Not sure, haven't kept track... I'm sure there must have been 1 or 2 good ones, but....

In the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "The Pirates of Penzance," the major general sings his song about being the "very model of a modern major general." One of the things he says he can do is write a washing-bill in Babylonic cuneiform. When I went to graduate school and started studying cuneiform, my mother kept asking me how long it would be before I could write a washing-bill in Babylonic cuneiform. I told her it would be a while, but my second year of grad school, I made one for her for Christmas. It was really pretty (black ink on paper), and I put it in a nice frame. When she opened it, she couldn't figure out what it was; since I'd said I didn't think I'd be able to do it so soon, she wasn't expecting it. She was really surprised and excited by it.

the gift of life

I really dont recall?......from a monetary standpoint, I have given loads of jewelry to my wife, running into $1000's now.....

I am planning to get my brother customized guitar picks for his band, and it will set me back 40 bucks, so I know that WILL be the best.

The greatest gift I have ever given anyone was when the boyfriend who I loved so very much and was a very talented musician doing his own music yet stayed with me and didn't go out in the world to do that (I no longer wanted to do the road trip thing having been there done that) I broke up with him and sent him on his way which he accepted. It about killed me. My solar plexis stretched then broke. I was drunk for a week (earlier years). We were best friends. So I loved him so much I set him free. And he didn't come back like the butterfly. So Chael, I hope you are dreaming that dream.

I once gave two of my high school friends "the gift of flight". We all went up in a cessna. It was cool, they'd never been in a plane never mind a small aircraft.

I don't know - the "best" happens on the receiving end of gifts....

life

My Christmas fudge. Everyone loves my fudge.

A scrapbook that I made for my friend Michele.

Life

I dont know, I can't think - guess you'd have to ask them.