Question of the Day | 03/15/2009 11:00 pm

What is the best present you have ever received?

Candice Bergen | 03/15/2009 11:00 pm

Candice Bergen's Favorite Shoes

Whoa. My daughter once made me a pair of birthday shoes when she was 10 or 11. I had them framed in a glass box and they hang on the wall in NYC. They are brilliant. Made of paper, lace and ribbon, and she taped Q-Tips inside them to massage my feet. And my husband is one of the all-time great gift givers. He really loves it and creates a sense of fun and surprise. He always hides his gifts in something else. The first big one was camouflaged inside a new pair of Tod’s loafers — which I loved. When I found what was inside them (a beautiful, understated piece of jewelry), I almost plotzed.

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Liz Smith | 03/15/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith's 'Most Satisfying' Present

I have said before that I have a pair of diamond clip-on earrings, which are panther heads, and I wear these almost every day. They were handmade by the jeweler who made Marie Antoinette’s infamous necklace. They are still in business in Paris and Rome. I have never had a gift that gave me so much satisfaction.

3 Comments

Joan Ganz Cooney | 03/15/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney: The Gift of Family

The best present I ever received was from my stepdaughter, Holly, when she gave birth to Chloe, now 12. Holly encouraged and facilitated in every way my bonding with my granddaughter. When she knew I was coming by, she’d pump breast milk so that I could feed the baby and then rock her to sleep. Whenever she and her husband went away for a weekend or, sometimes, longer periods, the baby and her nanny stayed with us, or when we spent vacations in Florida, Chloe would come with us sometimes without her parents. Germaine once wrote, and it described perfectly those early years (and later ones too), when she wrote of caring for the infant girl of a friend. "Ruby lit up my life in a way that nobody, certainly no lover, has ever done. I was not prepared for the incandescent sensuousness of this small child, the generosity of her innocent love."

4 Comments

Judith Martin | 03/15/2009 11:00 pm

Judith Martin: Meaningful Family Gifts

From my daughter, when she was six years old and I was going to a dinner for the queen at the British Embassy: a cardboard tiara that she hastily made while I was getting dressed, because she was worried that I would be the only tiara-less woman there.

From my son: Two books he designed and made when he took up bookbinding as a hobby: one volume containing my father’s 1926 Ph.D. thesis, which he laboriously copied from microfilm; and one with specific pages for me to keep an inventory of the peculiar flatware that we use.

From my husband — that he designed and made: my huge, L-shaped command-post desk, with specific shelves, drawers and cubbies for the things he knew I like to have within reach; a window seat with damask pillows for the music room, in which to hide the music scores that I complained everyone was leaving strewn around; and a variety of high, firm pillows, each covered in carpeting, to serve as footstools under our dining room table, because I am short. And that he commissioned — a song cycle by Dominick Argento, set to my writing; and a portrait capturing what he and the artist agreed is my Don’t-Think-I-Don’t-Know-What-You’re-Up-To expression.

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191 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Mercedes-Benz 500 SLC, in 1981. Just my luck! That was the "best," but by no means the finest. ;-))

By C jay on 03/17/2009 9:43 pm

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Being surrounded, this evening, by those I love.

By Chris Broersma on 03/17/2009 10:25 pm

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I will always remember ,when in hard times ($$$), my husband send me flowers (thing he used to think it was silly to send the at work place)..10 min after receiving them at my work bench in a pharmaceutical laboratory…a bomb allert was given and the last object to be received in the company were my flowers. So , YES! security torn them apart..searched even the LOVE note inside…now, and since then I could say my husband was right IT IS SILLY to pay so much for a public gift and see it been torn apart…I was really sad..I will never forget his face when I told him..I had to wait until the evening..no cell phones during those times.

By Ms. L. Delgado on 03/17/2009 11:22 pm

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wow………wowowow………

what a gift you gave all of us today.

A nice way to get acquainted with all the new posters.

By the Way…………..WELCOME

By Dona Howlett on 03/18/2009 1:40 am

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My life has been filled with gifts, some tangible, but the best have been my family. My parents gave me the gift of security - the knowledge that I was loved and that I could accomplish whatever I worked hard to achieve. They gave me freedom, too, to explore my child’s world, and I’m eternally grateful to them for their trust in me.

Like so many of us, I count my children and grandchildren as my greatest gifts. All five of my children, biological and adopted, plus my sweet foster daughter, have been and still are priceless gifts. They have challenged my intellect and ingenuity; they have given me reasons to cry but more reasons to laugh; they have demonstrated kindness in hundreds of ways; they have lent support to one another and to me in difficult and tragic times; they have done things and gone places I would never have predicted for them; and, they have brought the most wonderful babies into the world, cuddly babies who grew into delightful children, and who are so rapidly becoming fascinating young adults. I am amazed and entertained and blessed by all of my children and grandchildren - they are gifts that augment the zest and joy in my life.

By Maurine H on 03/18/2009 1:30 pm

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The true heart of the most wisest from all over the world. No more no less.

By Wafaa El Jusmani on 03/18/2009 4:25 pm

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My Dad made we a collage of my daughter and myself for Mothers Day! He was a very thoughtful and kind man, I miss him terribly.

By JACKIE SCHROEDER on 03/18/2009 8:33 pm

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Three of the filthiest and most matted-haired dogs from the animal shelter that were slated for the gas chamber that night.

By Andrea Brandon on 03/18/2009 8:40 pm

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The best gift I ever received was from my husband, 15 years ago. We had just started dating and he made me a 2 tiered birthday cake. He borrowed cake pans from his mother, went to my apartment w hile I was working. He kept his mom on the phone thru all the steps. The cake was iced and decorated beautifully. It was also lopsided, and had an inch of flour on the exterior of the cake under the icing.. When his mom said to flour the baking pans she didn’t stress "lightly". The hard effort , love and sweat were unmeasurable. I have never had a cake made with sooo much LOVE..

By Michele Zyjewski on 03/18/2009 9:13 pm