Best Presents Ever Received

the pair of black leggings my mother bought me

I wear these under trousers every winter, and are the one thing that gets me through this dismal season. Maybe a boring, but certainly practical gift with a lot of longevity. BTW, I don't need any more leggings because I have gone out and bought a couple more pairs to wear between washings.

faux (?) black suede ankle boots

This wasn't a present as much as a Black Friday purchase by my mom for me while I was a college student in 1992. They may be a little scuffed and worn looking, but I still have them and love them as much as ever.

the general store cookie jar in our kitchen

This was a wedding present from my mom, and it's adorned our kitchen for the last 6 years. We haven't actually put any cookies in it, but instead have used it to store candy, and more recently clean container lids (that I will eventually take to Generation Green). It looks good next to the French border above it, and serves a practical purpose, so it's certainly earned its keep.

light green deep pocket Martha Stewart sheets

These were a house-warming gift from my mom, and were certainly needed as we didn't have a single item of bedding (except for a couple quilts) when we moved to the US from England (since we only had a double bed in England and bought a queen in the US). Deep pockets make them easy to put on our bed, which is certainly much appreciated. Plus I like the color.

my I-Pod Nano

This was a Christmas present from my husband after I dropped (and broke) my Creative Zen. I think he was anxious to initiate me into the world of Apple products anyway, but lacking an MP3 player finally gave him an excuse. It works wonderfully (except for enough advance warning when the battery is low) and fits perfectly into the pocket size speaker I bought for it. Although sometimes I wish I had the next generation model (with more internal memory and video capability), it wouldn't fit in the speaker case, so I guess I'm stuck with a Nano (3?) for life.

my Canon APS camera

That was a wedding present from my husband and I've probably used it dozens of times over the last 13 years. Actually, I still have every cartridge I've ever used, so I could count them up and know for sure, but suffice it to say it's been used plenty. I like it for taking panoramic photos, as some scenery just lends itself to that format. Since APS has kind of gone out of popularity in this digital age, I've had to stockpile fresh APS cartridges and still have at least a dozen in our refrigerator.