The best gift you've ever given
Discussion
I'm in the process of going through the normal rigmarole of buying Christmas gifts for close friends and family - slippers, PJs, gift sets etc etc.
Just got me thinking what are best gifts you've ever given where either it was so well suited for the person, or it was such a great find i.e. something you've never seen before.
Just got me thinking what are best gifts you've ever given where either it was so well suited for the person, or it was such a great find i.e. something you've never seen before.
Got the wife a red TT for Valentine’s Day about 7 years ago ... it was her dream car and she loved it. Very materialistic but it brought a lot of happiness for her.
A few years ago when we sold off our rental properties there was one where my parents had gifted me the cash to buy it always repeated that they didn’t want the cash back. As I have a sister when the proceeds came through (on the 22nd December) I arranged to get half of it in cash and gave it to my sister and her husband on Christmas Eve in a big brown envelope - they were extremely happy to say the least!
A few years ago when we sold off our rental properties there was one where my parents had gifted me the cash to buy it always repeated that they didn’t want the cash back. As I have a sister when the proceeds came through (on the 22nd December) I arranged to get half of it in cash and gave it to my sister and her husband on Christmas Eve in a big brown envelope - they were extremely happy to say the least!
There is quite a story to this one but this is the compressed version.
I got a Les Paul for my 50th birthday so I need to do something of equal value and significance for Mrs Bills on her 50th.
To meet that challenge I commissioned a water colour painting of irises. They are her favourite flower and she loves botanical illustrations.
One of her favourite places is Kew Gardens so I approached Rachel Pedder Smith who did the Kew Herbarium Painting for her PhD (info https://herbariumworld.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/he... Her work is truly outstanding so I was sure that the end result would be something special and she certainly didn't let me down.
So we got the painting and the Shirley Sherwood gallery at Kew agreed to play along with me presenting it to Mrs Bills at the gallery. They agreed to put it on an easel in the main room and the plan was that the family would have a day out there with the Mrs not knowing what was waiting for her - so far as she was aware it was just a day out at Kew Gardens
It all nearly went wrong when some runner duck eggs that Mrs B was hatching decided to start the process on the morning of the trip and we had runner ducks appearing at random intervals but we still managed to make it work with a bit of free styling on the explanation for why it was important to go that day. We got her and the painting together at the gallery and only then dropped a few clues when she was standing in front of it (along with several other visitors who were admiring it) until she sussed that it was a present for her.
It was quite a palaver but it was worth it for the look on her face. There were tears.
It got me a lot of brownie points as well.
I got a Les Paul for my 50th birthday so I need to do something of equal value and significance for Mrs Bills on her 50th.
To meet that challenge I commissioned a water colour painting of irises. They are her favourite flower and she loves botanical illustrations.
One of her favourite places is Kew Gardens so I approached Rachel Pedder Smith who did the Kew Herbarium Painting for her PhD (info https://herbariumworld.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/he... Her work is truly outstanding so I was sure that the end result would be something special and she certainly didn't let me down.
So we got the painting and the Shirley Sherwood gallery at Kew agreed to play along with me presenting it to Mrs Bills at the gallery. They agreed to put it on an easel in the main room and the plan was that the family would have a day out there with the Mrs not knowing what was waiting for her - so far as she was aware it was just a day out at Kew Gardens
It all nearly went wrong when some runner duck eggs that Mrs B was hatching decided to start the process on the morning of the trip and we had runner ducks appearing at random intervals but we still managed to make it work with a bit of free styling on the explanation for why it was important to go that day. We got her and the painting together at the gallery and only then dropped a few clues when she was standing in front of it (along with several other visitors who were admiring it) until she sussed that it was a present for her.
It was quite a palaver but it was worth it for the look on her face. There were tears.
It got me a lot of brownie points as well.
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