Gifts can be big or small.

Inexpensive or extravagant.

Homemade or store-bought.

Gifts can be given that last a lifetime or just last a moment.

Gifts can be experiences or physical objects.

I love gifts.  I love GIVING gifts.   When our family decided years ago to forego the gift exchange for the Brown side I was the last hold out because I loved to find the perfect gift but it was getting to be far too much with too many grandchildren and great grandchildren being added. The simple answer was to pick a charity and donate collectively to that and we have done that for probably 10 years now and it was absolutely the best thing we could have done.

However—I still love to give gifts and several posts I have read this year have featured the best gift you have given or been given and it was easy for me to figure out what that was.

I have worn glasses since I was in 1st grade.  I started out with bifocals and those nifty blue cat eyed glasses as a fashionable first grader and moved on to other styles over the years.  When I was in college and dating Mr. Diamond he realized how much I hated wearing glasses especially when we attended college on “the tundra” where your glasses fogged over every chance they got.   So for Christmas one year he paid for me to go to his eye doctor and get fitted for contacts.   Quite simply it was THE greatest gift ever given and I love my contacts some 32 years later.

Chris and I “before” !

My college senior picture after contacts!

For some reason those glasses were holding me back. The sheer size of them alone was amazing but seriously—-without them I became a much more confident and outgoing person which kind of amazes me to this day.  Perhaps I was hiding behind them?

What was the best gift you ever received or gave?  I would love to hear all about it!