topic Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !! in Community Spirit

Best Christmas present... EVER !!

modestbods — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 02:16:05 GMT

With just 32 more days to go before Christmas, I thought it might be fun to talk 'prezzies'.

What's the best Christmas present you've EVER been given, and why?

And/or what's the best Christmas present you've EVER seen someone else given, and why?

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

grandmoon — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 02:21:45 GMT

So years ago was having my MIL being discharged from hospital so she could spend Christmas with the family.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

j*oono — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 03:29:49 GMT

Maybe not the best present but one I find very memorable.

A walkie talkie type of thing that was two phones joined together with long wires so that you could have one person in one room talking to a person in another room.

I thought it was just great, even though you had to be close enough to the other person that you could hear them anyway without the phone.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

*pepe — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 03:30:48 GMT

my best and most treasured pressies are those handprints done in a saucer of plaster given to me by my kids in their kinder year.

i still have mine that i gave my mum when i was in kinder.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

channys_mum — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 03:44:55 GMT

@*pepe wrote:
my best and most treasured pressies are those handprints done in a saucer of plaster given to me by my kids in their kinder year.

i still have mine that i gave my mum when i was in kinder.

Yep

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

tasfleur — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 03:50:26 GMT

The best Christmas ever was when my husband asked me to marry him on Christmas day over 30 years ago now.

The really best part is, we still celebrate it together and have every Christmas as a special one, as well as our wedding anniversary on July 1st .....

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

modestbods — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 03:51:36 GMT

The best Christmas present I was ever given came along with the first pushbike I'd ever owned or ridden, a Malvern Star that my dad gave me when I was nine years old. My best ever present wasn't the bike itself though, it was the memories that came with it from that day.

We were opening prezzies around the tree, Dad gave both my older brother and I each a small present to unwrap, they were identical & we both sat there looking at the weird looking cylindrical metal contraption with a bracket attached & a small round wheel type thing on one end, not knowing what on earth they were.

After my brother asked, Dad told us they were power generators that go on a bicycle. Thinking that adults were all just big dumbies, I said "That's great Dad, but we don't have bike's", Dad just smiled and said nothing. My brother & I sat there for the next couple of minutes looking back and forth between each other & our power generators. Then all of a sudden a light bulb seemed to go on in my brother's head and he jumped up yelling "You got us bikes, you got us bikes !! Where are they? !!" Dad just laughed and said "You'll have to find them."

I was like grease lightning, easily beating my brother out the door, & at full sprint I made a B-line for the car shed (an old converted barn & piggery raised eight foot off the ground with an earthen drive/ramp leading up to it). Sure enough, there inside the shed I spotted two shiny new Malvern Star bikes, one blue & one green, sitting upright on their kick stands. They both had bows tied to them and a tag attached, I checked the blue one first & it had my name on the tag, I was too excited to speak. I took hold of the bike and carefully started wheeling it to the shed door.

That's when my brother finally caught up and shoved me bodily out of the way, causing me and my new bike to fall over, with me falling on top of the bike. He laughed at me flailing about on top of my prone bike and said ""Haha you don't even know how to ride a bike, I don't know why Dad even gave you one." I had just managed to pick myself and my new bike back up as my brother came by wheeling his green bike to the shed door.

Being the 'expert' cyclist that he was my brother started carefully preparing to mount his bike at the top of the steep drive/ramp leading from the shed. Not to be outdone I took a couple of fast steps and flung myself up onto my bike just as I'd seen others do previously. It was just then as my bike and I started to gather momentum coming down off the top of the ramp that I realized I didn't know what to do next. It didn't help that the bike was way to big for me (it was only one size down from adult size), and I was struggling to find the pedals with my feet.

In the blink of an eye my bike and I were totalling out of control careening down the ramp and had started heading sideways to my left. It was at that moment my brother on his green bike came hurtling down the left-hand side of the ramp. There was nothing I could do about it, and I ran sideways into him as he was passing by. I ricocheted off my brother and having had my forward momentum almost completely stopped by the impact I then found myself and my bike slowly wobbling down the middle of the ramp, but starting to gather speed again thanks to gravity.

At the same time my brother let out an almighty scream and out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimps of he and his bike as they speared off the steep side of the ramp and cannoned into one of Dad's peach trees that were growing alongside the drive. As it turned out my brothers bike hit the tree square on, badly buckling the front wheel, whilst my brother got hung up in the branches and was left bruised, scratched, and bleeding.

I managed to come to a stop by jumping off my bike as it started to fall sideways at the bottom of the drive, leaving me on my feet as my bike fell down beside me. I immediately picked it back up and turned to my brother and his tangled mess of a bike in the peach tree and yelled "Haha, now who can't ride a bike?" I think my brother probably got just as many scratches as he came tearing out of the tree intent on murdering me, as what he had got from ploughing into it. I quickly took off running alongside my bike, and ran by our dad who had just arrived at the bottom of the drive in time to witness what had happened. He was in tears from laughing too hard. I made it across the cattle grid at the entrance to the yard and onto the road out front. Whilst still in a run & with my brother chasing me, but starting to fall well behind (he was fat & slow), I jumped back onto my bike and very quickly figured out how to ride it.

My best present EVER wasn't the bike my dad gave me, it was the look on my brothers face after I yelled at him "Haha, now who can't ride a bike?"... simply priceless.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

cmcoins2000 — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 03:53:21 GMT

@tasfleur wrote:
The best Christmas ever was when my husband asked me to marry him on Christmas day over 30 years ago now.

The really best part is, we still celebrate it together and have every Christmas as a special one, as well as our wedding anniversary on July 1st .....

Go Tas.

I have been married 26 years.

My OH has remembered 2 Anniversaries.

AND they were not consecutive - 2nd & 8th.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

j*oono — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:00:55 GMT

Haha Modestbods. I hope you two are the best of friends now.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

modestbods — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:03:28 GMT

Not quite.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

sandypas — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:07:22 GMT

Good memories Modestbods . Does your brother still remember it?

I thought all my Christmases were special and yet looking back, we received very little. It was always a special time though and we did get presents.

I think my best one was the cavalier king charles spaniel our daughter bought us. We still have her and she is a delight.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

tasfleur — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:15:32 GMT

Just because some husbands/boyfriends/partners do not remember anniversaries does not mean that they do not love each other, I'm sure of that.

Mind you, it can be deliberate or indifference of course, but that might be because the relationship has failed and those times don't matter to them anyway ...

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

modestbods — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:18:11 GMT

@sandypas wrote:
Good memories Modestbods . Does your brother still remember it?

I have no idea, but probably not.

I would like to think he might still remember how he felt at that moment I yelled what I did at him though. Yes I know, that might seem mean of me, but trust me, if you knew my older brother...

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

*pepe — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 04:27:31 GMT

thank you for sharing that - i could actually see it in my mind....

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

cmcoins2000 — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 05:22:11 GMT

@cmcoins2000 wrote:
@tasfleur wrote:
The best Christmas ever was when my husband asked me to marry him on Christmas day over 30 years ago now.

The really best part is, we still celebrate it together and have every Christmas as a special one, as well as our wedding anniversary on July 1st .....
Go Tas.

I have been married 26 years.

My OH has remembered 2 Anniversaries.

AND they were not consecutive - 2nd & 8th.

Hello - 3 Kudo's.

What is so good about 2 out of 26.

It became a family joke - married on either 3/3/88 or 4/3/88 - neither of us can remember.

Early March I go to the chest & get said cert - check date.

I used to go buy him a gift - only to embarass - wrap & present at dinner - hoping for - well, anything.

Now I wait till the day after & say - Thank You Very Much - Again.

He has been known to hang his head saying 'did I forget your birthday'.

Good ploy - knows birthday is in May.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

tasfleur — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 09:45:32 GMT

One anniversary earlier on in our marriage, my darling husband purchased a lovely set of pots and pans for me and I still have them, they're as good as ever, so I can relate to that clatu xx

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

tasfleur — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 09:51:24 GMT

It's great he bought it for you, hope you have many happy meals to cook with it xx

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

ashjoma — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 10:34:31 GMT

A pack of 10 movie ticket vouchers

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

tcmsecretuseid — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 19:23:08 GMT

I love the bike story.

My mom gave my sister and I ping pong paddles and balls one year. We couldn't figure out how we were supposed to use those gifts. Along the same lines(as the bike story), we eventually realized that a ping pong table was hidden elsewhere. We loved that gift. My sister and I got very competitive playing that game. To this day, I'm pretty good at ping-pong. 😉

My answer to the OP , is ... anything that goes away. Food items, soaps, etc. I don't need stuff.

In saying that, I wear a watch (every single day) that my BIL bought me several years ago. I bought my husband a watch about 5 years ago as a joke(because he already has too many). The joke was that the watch is huge, and the numbers are really large. He gets more compliments on that watch, than any other watch he wears. Jokes on us!

So my favorite list goes like this, not necessarily in this order.

Really good chocolate, or fudge.

Gift cert. to the movie theater, or restaurant.

Homemade gifts are appreciated.

Unique tree ornaments.

An interesting book.

A donation to MY favorite charity in my name.

A watch... 😉 which nobody needs any longer, because their smart phones do everything for them.

Re: Best Christmas present... EVER !!

lloydslights — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 19:36:21 GMT

The gift I remember most of all from my childhood was the Annie Oakley outfit. At the age of 6 it was my first store-bought present.

It played a key role in lots of games of cowboys and indians, where the girl in the white tasselled, red outfit was always a winner.

DEB