The best gifts I’ve ever received

Putting aside those treasures I’ve collected from when my daughter was little – notes, artworks, pottery creations – a collection which is now being added to by the little grandbugs, the best gifts I’ve ever received will mostly be a greatest hits of gifting by Himself. But there are others…

• A ring gifted to my mother on her wedding by her father’s business partners. It’s a chunky lump of Indian gold – said to be 24 carat – which resembles a framed sculpture of Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, and abundance. I’ve worn it – on & off – from the age of 16, but it became formally mine on my 21st birthday.
  
• A nativity set made up of a mixture of Nao and Lladro spanish porcelain. When my sister was living in Spain, she was commissioned to fill her suitcase with multiple pieces, to bring back to the UK for me as Christmas gifts from the entire family. I still set them out each year.
  
• 4 floral watercolours painted by my daughter and beautifully framed.
  
• An antique writing slope. I’d seen one at a historical living fair and fallen in love with it, so Himself took me antique shopping to select one. For those unfamiliar with the concept, they appear to be a highly polished rectangular wooden box, but when opened they become a sloped surface for writing, with compartments for your writing ephemera.
  
• A Ricoh GR3 – a compact camera which fits in a pocket and provides big results due to its high quality sensor and sharp lens. For many professional photographers, it’s their street photography camera of choice.
  
• A compact Canon photo printer that allows me to print high quality images – at home – so I can easily and regularly update the framed photos I have on display.
  
• A Sigma 35mm Art series lens for my full-size camera. This is a beauty of a lens, incredibly sharp, with amazing resolution, allowing me to crop an image right down to the size of a postage stamp without losing image quality.
  
• A beautiful hardback book called Apollo Remastered by Andy Saunders (the link is for US purchasers in case Mark wants to buy a copy 😉). Saunders has remastered all the original photos taken during the Apollo missions so they are now even more stunning. A truly gorgeous thing for a space nerd like myself.

In some cases, the gifts mentioned qualified as “best” because they were things I genuinely loved, wanted and have continued to cherish. But, in the best of cases, they were the result of listening, noticing and remembering what was often just a one-off remark (except for that ring, ‘cos I cannot deny I asked every single year😂 while never believing it would become mine until it was left it to me).

As you can see, a number of these perfect gifts relate to photography (a passion I share with Himself). Would there be a similar theme in your best gifts, or is there something else which makes them special to you?

© Debs Carey, 2026