We have all received gifts which are very special, not necessarily valuable. How about telling us about some of the gifts you have received which are amongst your favourite?

For one of my birthdays my mother gave me a small photo frame with a photograph of my children when they were young, it is lovely.

I have a Swiss army type penknife, with various gadgets on it, which my daughter bought for me when she was only ten years old. It cost her, relatively speaking, a lot of money, and it's accompanied me all over the world - and been very useful too!

For Mother's Day last year my hubby bought me the 30th anniversary edition of Where the Sidewalk Ends. It makes me cry, which I know I've mentioned somewhere around here before, because of the poem in the back that says "My pen is almost out of ink, but I will have enough I thin..." Shel Silverstein is one of my favorite childhood memories, and the thoughtfulness that went into this particular gift is not surprising from my husband, but for some reason it astonishes and touches me every time he shows it.

Several gifts I have received during the last 50 years have gone straight to the heart. To name a few-


A first edition set of Anne Tyler novels from my husband at Christmas, 1992. The inscription on the frontispiece was almost as good as having the books themselves.

An amethyst and diamond dinner ring that was a completely unexpected gift, given for no good reason at all. It dissapeared for almost a year and suddenly re-appeared one evening sittng on top of my jewelry box, unexplained.
I still wear it every day.

When my son was in third grade he made a blue, snow capped plaster mountain about four inches high. It lives in the kitchen above the sink with other childy brica brac. When I look at it, it remeinds me of how sweet and endearing he was, and how it seems only yesterday since he brought it home from school. On that sunny humid afternoon, the world still made sense, the future looked bright and I hadn't made nearly as many mistakes. I also hold dear two little salt and pepper shakers, with the holes drilled out by my six year old daughter, and given to me for Mother's Day. she is a practical child, and it thrilled her no end that she got to make the present using power tools. [ with help] My other daughter [ the more fey and dreamy of my three children] has supplied me with lacy, intricate woodcuts and beautiful etchings over the years...all so precious to me.

-My great grandmother's quilt. Made during the 1920's, it reminds me of my Choctaw grannie with her snapping black eyes and kind heart. My mother gave it to me about seven years ago, and I was quite overcome by the gesture.

There is also another gift I will cherish and have threatened to be buried with it [ or cremated with it, if they'd let me]

This was also a surprise from some one I love...a volume entitled The White Trash Cookbook filled with instructions for making liquored up pies that you set on fire along with endless poke salad and creamed corn recipes. Sort of a private joke between the sender and myself, and I wouldn't take anything for it.