What is your favorite present?

[Snow-flake]

I have so many that I could write forever about some of the nicest things people have given me as a gift.



One year a friend had an artist draw a picture of my house, and she wrote me this amazing poem about our friendship and how much I meant to her, and she had it all framed...I loved that.



Another friend of mine, made me several DVDs of my family photos and put them on a slide show with all my favorite songs, and he got a bunch of different celebrities that I had been a fan of... to sign autographed photos to me, and he got them on video talking to me, and he made a slide show of the whole thing, and he put my pictures of my house, and my families Christmas pictures, and put that all on a DVD, it was so awesome-he set it to the Christmas music..."Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".



A had another friend who got me a movie poster from my favorite movie, and had an actress from that movie sign it, and he framed that for me for last year.



My Aunt paid for me and my family to spend a weekend for Christmas at my favorite resort. I went that same year and spent New Year's Eve with her in Vermont, it was awesome.



My mom has given me some awesome gifts...she bought me framed pictures of different places from my hometown, that an artist did...they were places we use to hang out at that were very sentimental.



My husband and I got engaged on Nov 23rd...so this Thanksgiving will be 17 years ago that we got engaged...it was also my brother's birthday..and my brother gave me away at my wedding, so that is very special to me.



I have another friend who finds me the coolest things...she looks all year long for things I might collect...cause I collect old lunchboxes and TV memorbillia, so she looks at yard sales and flea markets...and she always makes me the coolest basket of gifts...and I love it, it is so awesome when people take that much time thinking of you...it makes you cherish the friendship so much.



I am very lucky...I have a great family and the best friends you could ever have, so I could go on forever about the great things they have given me, but friendship really is what is the best gift ever. You can not put a price on that.



How about everyone else??

[Dudley]

Those are wonderful gifts and people, Spoo...I mean, Snow-flake.

Mine is probably a paperback my Baby Brother got me. Only copy I ever saw. that, or a piece of the high school stage that Buddy Holly performed on. They took it out in Lubbock Texas when they replaced the gym with a new stage, and as a fund raiser you could buy a piece of the old stage with the school name burned in it, and a note saying it was the real thing. It sits on my coffee table..sometimes I just hold it; think about the history, about time, distance, the nature of fame, the fact I have a slight piece of history in my hand..

Puts things in perspective.

Remember that chop suey reciepe I mentioned in the office party section? One of the most influencial gifts. My aunt got it for me. New York's HOUSE OF CHAN. She and uncle paused to look at all the jazz and blues musicians who ate there and had their photos up, and was memorizing the names, to impress her favorite nephew (me) when she sees this ONE white guy's pic..very handsome...and she asks Mr. Chan who he was. Mr Chan tells her it's DONNIE WAYNE..he is an actor who goes by the stage name DON JOHNSON..and he comes in every night with a different girl and makes TERRIBLE drive in movies..that he dug the chop suey and he reccomended it.

So after the meal, my aunt, who was a fox, and could make men drool and roll over and sit up and beg, parts her lips gives him a high beam stare and says:'I MUST have that reciepe.." And the waiter just becomes a zombie and without emotion, says;"Yes. You must."

Comes back with it written out for her. The kitchen staff looking out and waving. She does that 'oh thank you' schtick that makes you feel like Goofy in a Disney cartoon "awwww shucks" and leaves.

I used it for YEARS on a date..would tell the story, but on some Miles Davis, cook the chow in the kitchen, and then it was every man for himself..

she gave me a got of clear sailing for a lot of years with that..when I would bring the dates over, she would ask;"Did he TELL you the HOUSE OF CHAN story??? I gave him that..BOTH the reciepe and the story.."

What could you do? I laughed.