What is the best gift you have ever given?

I gave a tip. A huge tip. A Huuge tip. To a single mom waitress at a restaurant I used to visit every day. I was in another country where tipping was not the custom. The service was always excellent and she was always so nice and respectful. She also helped answer culture questions for me when I did not understand what was going on..
In that country, it is customary for people to give money as a going away present. Friends gave me a lot of cash as good-will gesture. It was so much money I felt uncomfortable accepting it. I asked her about it (no mention of the amount) and she told me it was their custom so I should honor it and accept.
About a week later, a day or so before I was leaving the country, I put the money in an envelop, wrote a note to her that in my country it is the custom to reward great service with a tip so she should accept it. I left it under a plate.
In a thank you letter she said that money helped change her life.

A hand made painting of my favorite bird.

I surprised my daughter on her 21st Birthday with a 2 hour, hot air balloon tour with all the champagne you could drink ( and boy did we drink haha ) and a gourmet lunch in the sky.
It was AMAZING! I had her come over to spend the night and she was clueless. Just told her that we had to up at 4 a.m.

We drove in the dark to meet the balloonists at their van about 10 miles away and they chaufered us to the launch site and we took off at sunrise. Drank about 3 bottles of champagne by 8 a.m. it was GREAT! Laughing all the way and positively giddy cruising up to several thousand feet then down over the tree tops. Chased some cows in the balloon, the guide was great, a comedian at heart and we carried on like pros. lol

I have never been so “high” in my life!
Up, up, and awaaaay!

That is awesome. And not cheap. I’ve always wanted to do that over the lake

@GloPro It was astounding, “high”- ly recommended! :-)
It wasn’t too bad…I mean yes, about $600 but, I got the deluxe package.
What really cost me was tripping over my lap top on the floor at 4 a.m. and fracturing the screen. haha
Way to go Coloma. Sooo…add a new computer to the deal.

For Christmas after my ex-father-in-law’s beloved dog passed, I have twenty trees planted in a forest in his and his dog’s name. My ex-FIL teared up when he saw the certificate and eventually had it framed along with the dog’s collar and a picture of himself with the dog.

I’m a giver… so that’s a hard one to answer.

The best gift, based on the other person’s reaction, would be a 40 page 12×12 photo album I made through Shutterfly for my current partner. One weekend, we went hot air ballooning, went to a Broncos game, then went up into the mountains to hike and fly fish. To end the weekend, our friends and I hosted a birthday party for him. I took photos the whole weekend and made it into a book. 2 years later, he still looks at the book from time to time and gets annoyed if it’s off its display spot.

The best gift, based on my own feelings, would be paying a couple thousands for a high school drama class to have a top-notch play. While the kids still probably have no idea how much it cost, it was very rewarding for me. Two of the student actors from that play went on to become professional actors.

I hand crafted for a girlfriend a necklace with a gold pendant shaped as a heart. Admittingly, it ended up being a bit heavy on her neck, but she treasured it and wore it often. Then about half a year later I gave her the cold shoulder and we split ways. That was arguably the best thing I did for her.

@Winter_Pariah Haha..I thoguht you said you crafted a necklace with a gold peanut shaped as a heart. lolol

My best gifts are usually made.
I combined photos with a backdrop that I drew and added a simple funny rhyme that describes us perfectly for our 20th anniversary. ( I knew when he busted out laughing that it was a hit) He took it to work to put on his wall. His co-workers all loved it.

Another gift was a collage of our events in our life. He loved that as well.

For my son’s birthday, ( I think it was his 25th) I made a dvd of pictures and videos of his life from a day old, grade school, high school and college up until he graduated from boot camp. It took me over a year to select the photos and make it work with my song selection so that the words fell perfectly with the pictures an the video at the end. Especially since most of my photos were not digital of his younger years and I had a crappy scanner at the time. I would take about 5 minutes to scan each photo. And my computer was slow as dirt. I think I could’ve hand drawn those pictures faster.

For my daughter. I made her bridal bouquet and designed it with her in mind. She was so happy and proud of it. (But I still want to do something for her to keep longer than flowers) I’m just kind of running out of ideas. :(

What made them such great gifts was that I took my time in letting them know how much they mean to me.

I’ve always loved gifts that were made for me more than purchased.

Easy.

The last year of her life, one of my aunts (the last of the 3 most special people in my life) was in the hospital 100+ miles away on Valentines Day. I had a friend in that town, so I planned a weekend that would allow me to stop and visit my aunt on the way. I stopped a town ahead thinking I might grabs some flowers at Walmart. Yeah, and a vase for the flowers. Between vase and flowers I passed (her favorite cookie maker, ) Mrs. Field’s chocolates.

Anyway, I get the the hospital, arms loaded, but when I get to her room, it’s dark? I see a form by the window, and I say gently, “Aunt Jean?” Seems she was sitting there in the dark and I was her only visitor that day. She’d told her son, DIL and 3 grandkids not to bother, and they hadn’t.

Absolutely the best gift I have ever given.