It’s Prize Time again! I wanted to give something for the holiday giveaway that I was really excited about, so I chose the Snow and Graham 2009 wall and desk calendars!
The best news is that Snow and Graham awesomely donated some calendars to this giveaway so… THERE WILL BE 6 WINNERS THIS TIME ! whoooo-hooo !
To Participate, All you need to do is post a comment, naming any particularly great gift that you have ever given or received. (it has to be this post.)
Guidelines: You have until December 1st 2008 to post a comment. The winner will be randomly chosen on December 2nd, and announced here on Parcel Post – so check back here to see if you have won. Please note: “anonymous” comments will not be counted, so make sure you identify your post with a name.
wall calendar
desk calender
fantastic designs for each month
good luck wishes,
* A
Parcel Post 
My mom bought me a set of books from my favorite author – they were autographed with his fingerprint, the most authentic signature ever. Very sweet.
I had been talking about how much I wanted the new iPod Touch that was going to be out in a few days. So, my brother pre-ordered it for me without letting me know about it and I found the package on my bed a few days later. I actually got it a day before it was even out and it had a special message from my brother and sister-in-law in the back, engraved in the iPod. That was one of the sweetest things that anyone has ever done for me.
Titanic came out when I was in 5th grade, and my brother got me a Titanic soundtracks CD with Celine Dion’s song in it. I was so ecstatic that I cried. hahahahahahahaha, silly me.
a puppy…..who is now my best friend
When I was probably about nine, my parents bought me a sewing machine. At the time it was neat because my Grandmother had taught me to sew a few years before, but looking back I think it’s amazing. I’m 23 and I still have the same machine. That dinky machine has gotten me through maaany projects and I really doubt I’d be the same person without that fateful gift.
This year I am giving my sister a really cool poster made from a picture of her, her fiance and my nephew. I am pretty excited to see their reactions.
We wanted to give our 50-something mother something different, something she would never forget! So 2 years ago my sister and I gave our her a gift certificate to go skydiving! Throughout that year I had hinted around to see if she would want to do something like that and she seemed into it. So christmas morning came and she unwrapped the box with a framed, photoshopped photo of the 3 of us skydiving she totally freaked out and was so excited. Kept telling all of our holiday guests how excited she was. And she didn’t chicken out, a few months later the 2 of us (my sister was too scared!) did it and she said it was one of the most amazing things she had ever done in her life!!!
My husband found a company that prints pictures of the night sky in a specific location on a specific night – for our 1st anniversary he ordered a print of the Asheville, NC sky (where we got married) on our wedding evening. Beautiful!
My Mother in Law (she was not my Mother in Law at the time… just my boyfriend’s mom) and her sisters hand sewed me my own Christmas stocking a couple years ago to match the ones she had made for her own children that they use every year. That was a wonderful Christmas, I really felt like part of the family (even if I wasn’t yet legally part of it!) I was so touched!
earlier on in our relationship, my boyfriend (now fiance) took me out for my birthday to this awesome restaurant. that was enough to make me happy, but then he busted out this beautiful necklace as well. i was so overwhelmed by his generosity that day.
The flowers that my husband brings me, just “because” are the best present! His sweet thoughtfulness just warms my heart 🙂
best gift was my husband surprised me with a weekend getaway to a mountain cabin in december. i’m a super-planner so i loved that we had to just get up the next morning and go. it wasn’t crazy fancy but he arranged a sleigh ride, delicious dinner and, oh ya, he proposed!
my best gift in recent memory was the ukulele my boyfriend gave me last year for christmas. Who can be unhappy when there’s ukulele music playing? Never mind that I play it very very badly!
My little cousin is obsessed with Hannah Montana, and she had a Hannah Montana themed birthday party where everyone dressed up like (you guessed it) Hannah Montana, had toy guitars, etc.
I went to the party and took a ton of pictures, then turned a picture of my cousin and her best friend into a Hannah Montana poster – modeled after the real thing, in the way of colors and design elements. I even made a Hannah Montana logo with my cousin’s name. Then I got it printed poster size and gave it to her as a gift at the next holiday. She LOVED it!
Cabbage Patch car seat holder. It was awesome! My mom had been sick and we weren’t sure she would be home for Christmas morning. That, coupled with the awesome Cabbage Patch accessory, was more than my little brain could handle. 🙂
Cabbage Patch car seat holder. It was awesome! My mom had been sick and we weren’t sure she would be home for Christmas morning. That, coupled with the awesome Cabbage Patch accessory, was more than my little brain could handle. 🙂
The most beautiful cashmere sweater. It is pink and I’m wearing it right now. I had wanted one for the longest time but couldn’t afford it. My mother was sweet enough to get it for me one Christmas. I think of her every time I put it on.
The best gift I have received is a “Coffee Bean vanilla mix container” with the promise that he (my husband) would make a vanilla ice blended every time I wanted it until the container was done. And he really did it!!! He sometimes woke up early in the morning so I would have it for my drive to work. It was such a simple gift but the fact he was willing to do all that for me and that he thought of it Made the Gift!!!
This year was the year of all things related to paper! My boyfriend signed me up for a 2-day letterpress workshop and my sister surprised me with the most beautiful personalized notecards from Felix Doolittle.
My sister waiting in line for HOURS at a childworld when I was young to get me a Cabbage Patch Kid becuase I wanted one so very badly. I still have it too!
This year I’m giving my best friend a CD of the musical “13”. It’s signed by Jason Robert Brown (who wrote the music) and happens to be my friend’s favorite composer. I’m really excited to give it to him!
My boyfriend gave me a cooking class for my birthday this year. It was so much fun because we love cooking together and everything was delicious. We have made a couple of the recipes again on our own.
my mom gave me my grandmother’s pearls when i turned 21. i still cherish them!
I love Skittles. For our first Christmas together, my fiance (boyfriend at the time) put a large bag of Skittles in my stocking. I didn’t think much of it until he asked me multiple times to open the bag. He had purchased 3 bags of Skittles, separated out all the red ones (my favorite!) and gave me a big bag of only red Skittles. I was delighted.
A couple of years ago my son became obsessed with violins (of all things!). He was not quite 4 years old at the time. My husband and I decided we’d rent one for a couple of months just so he could hold one and try it out. It was so wonderful to see his eyes light up on Christmas day! Of course the novelty wore off and we returned the violin to the music store after a short time, but he still mentions violins once in a while.
what lovely calendars! my husband is always really thoughtful, and the last gift he gave me was just lovely, a pair of bose in-ear headphones that actually fit in my ears. They have great sound and allow me to live in my own little world. yay!
i’m a bit of a scrabble nut and a friend gifted me an office cork board with home-made scrabble-tile-tacks! it sits on my desk and totally brightens my day.
Oh A, what a fab idea! Let’s see… one of the best gifts ever was when my new brother-in-law secretly teamed up with my dad to take all of cherished SLIDES of our childhood photos and convert them onto DVD – and then gave them to each of us (me and my two sisters) as a surprise for the holidays. So now whenever I want to go back down memory road, I don’t have to haul out the slide projector, I can just pop open my iPhoto!
The best gift i ever got was a pair of jeans from my sister. i never understood the value (or importance) of expensive jeans until i had this pair — i’m wearing them now and i wear them every day. i am a total convert.
Every year my best friends from college participate in a tradition we call “Panty Exchange” – since freshman year the 14 of us have drawn names out of a hat and met for a night of cocktails and girls’ gift exchange. The past years we have spread out all over the country (and world!) and we have kept the tradition strong through mail. Last year, it was a cold December night and I had been working late. The mail man came in with his last run of packages. I ripped it open to find a brand new set of my new favorites signed with love from one of my best friends.
I think the best gift I ever received had, in the utmostly-cliched way, so little to do with the object itself. My best friend from high school is a graphic designer, and she made me a set of greeting cards, which each time I use them, I think of her and think of it as passing on that spirit of giving! Lame, perhaps…but it was better sounding than my other option, which was a baby bunny that my dad surprised us with on Christmas morning after our old rabbit had died on Dec. 23rd. Oh, wait – maybe that’s really the best gift I’ve ever gotten 🙂
Jesus Christ.
My husband bought me a beautiful grand piano several years ago which was my “birthday-christmas-birthday-christmas-birthday-christmas gift” for something like 5 years straight. 🙂 I love that after studying for 15 years in my youth, I can play piano again in our home. Just this year, our 4 year old daughter started lessons and I’m thrilled to introduce her to one of my dearest passions in life.
The gift of music, and especially making it myself, is one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever been given.
(PS. I’m going to have to buy one of those wall calendars even if I don’t win!)
One of my most favorite gifts was from my Mom. I was for my 30th birthday. It was such a pivotal point in my life. I had just found out that I had an early stage of cancer & was finishing my bachelor’s degree….a bit later in life.
My Mom gave surfing lessons. Her gift was so empowering; I believe it gave me the strength I needed to enter my 30’s & heal quickly.
A gift I will never forget!
for our one-year anniversary I had one of our wedding photos drawn up as a zombie portrait by an illustrator. my husband loves zombies movies, and I presented it as “til undeath do us part”. he loved it, although it’s kind of creepy so we haven’t figured out where to hang it up yet.
A great gift I’ve received was from my mother, who gave me a little diamond ring for my 16th birthday. Due to unfortunate circumstances, my family lost all its heirlooms in the past, so I’m hoping that this little ring can eventually become one for later generations.
The best gift I have ever received was from my husband who wrote me a heartfelt poem on a beautiful card.
Those calendars are so adorable. Lovin’ the wall one the most!
Best gift… hmmm… I would say one of the best gifts I have received would be this box set of lost 50s and 60s girl group songs from my fiance that is packaged in a hat box with fake compact holders as the CD holders.
Last Christmas I received the best gift of all, my loving boyfriend Frank. We had previously meet at art exhibitions and been out as friends a few times. It was Christmas Eve and we had our first kiss, from there the rest is history and I just adore him so v. much.
I got a SNES when I was about 8. It was a combined christmas + birthday present for me and my brother from my parents when we didn’t have a lot of money.
My best gift ever was my engagement ring I got from my boyfriend on top of the Rattle Snake hill overlooking the Squam lake (my favorite place in the world) in NH. It was total surprise that I did not expect at that time at all!!!
Greetings from Slovakia, Lucia
last year, my father wrapped up $700 in a box for me. Seriously, just cold hard cash in tens, twenties, fifties and a couple one hundreds – with a bunch of confetti. incredibly fun to open and count 🙂 I used it for a trip to vegas w/ the bf!
When I was three years old, my Nana gave me a stuffed bunny rabbit that I took everywhere. Two years later, I took it with me on a little road trip with my mom and dad to Lake Powell. Four hours into the trip back home, I realized that Sally (my bunny) had been left at the hotel.
My dad drove ALL the way back to get it for me. It was so nice. I still keep Sally on my bed and I’m 24 and married. She’s seen better days, but I wouldn’t still have her were it not for my dad’s appreciation of the attachment between his only daughter and her favorite stuffed animal.
The best gift my brother and I ever gave my mom was a few years ago when my older brother drove from Minneapolis where he lives to Madison, WI where i was living, a few weekends before christmas. we went to a photo studio and had our portrait taken together, and gave my mom a few framed pictures of us. she was so touched that we had organized it in advance that she cried of course.
I am straining my brain trying to think of the best gift ever given or received.. and what keeps popping into my head is rollerskates. There isn’t a deep story associated with this – I just remember being really excited to get them.
My aunt used to take me to see The Nutcracker every year growing up. I remember the whole thing seeming like absolute magic and it’s still my favorite soundtrack of the holiday season!
My ex-boyfriend, who I dated for 8yrs and a fellow graphic designer as myself (and yes we’re still friends), surprised me one morning with a huge box wrapped in green wrapping paper and a big red bow on top. As I ripped open this huge box like a little kid, I saw that it was the Apple flat panel and was ecstatic! But when I slightly lifted up the box to open, the box was pretty light for having a screen in it. I opened the box and in it there was a post it note that wrote, “YOU WISH!”. I looked at him with complete confusion and he said, “There’s something in there, I promise! Keep looking”. So I dig with excitement in this huge square thing that was covered with crinkled newspaper. By the time all the paper was off, it felt like canvas. I flip the canvas over and stared at, which felt like 5 hours, and fell in love with its meaning behind it. He took one of our favorite pictures together, manipulated and painted it on canvas. It was something so amazing, so creative and unique because no one has ever painted anything for me before. It was definitely the greatest gift ever given to me. After being in awe of the painting, I lifted the canvas up high with both hands as if I won some award. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to put it up on my bare bedroom wall. By the way, he documented the entire thing from start to finish. You should see the pictures of my facial expressions and how ecstatic I was! Hilarious!
The best gift I’ve ever received was a painting my little brother did of my parents as old people holding hands in the sunset.
when we were younger my sister and I loved to sing together…in the car, around the house, wherever. one year for christmas she made me a book called “the great big sister songbook” and typed all the lyrics to our favorite songs so we’d have them handy at all times!
The best gift ever was from my brother, Kurt when I was around 10 years old. He was way into He-Man and I likewise was into She-ra. He saved up his allowance and got me the She-Ra castle! It was awesome! Even if it was a simultaneous great accessory for his He-man toys, I was beyond excited. Even at 10, I knew it was something to never forget!
i got a polaroid 1000 from my brother last year, just in time for me to stock up on film before production ended. the camera itself is great, but what i appreciate the most about it is the fact that i have found a new passion for polaroid photography that inspires me everyday of the year.
The best gift I received was a handmade flipbook that husband made of us at the beach last summer – it’s my most prized gift!
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My dad was always into genealogy, so one Christmas when I was in high school he gave each of us a long tube that held an empty family tree. His idea was that as we grew, found spouses, and had children, we’d eventually fill out our family tree and have a very visible reminder of the people in our families who walked before us, who made our lives possible.
Well, that was a cool gift, but I didn’t really appreciate it’s significance until this year. After my marriage, I filled out the family tree and spent some time thinking about all the family members who moved through this world loving and toiling and adapting to life, working to make the world a better place for others, for their family. And then I got to thinking that I wanted to find some way to show honor to them.
I was stumped for a while until I realized that my dad didn’t actually have a family tree of his own, so I decided to hire the artist who inscribed our family tree to make one for him! He actually drew a design for me based both on some small sketches I made and on the tree my dad gave me, and now I have a beautiful, hand-designed family tree for him!
Since he loves tracing his roots so much, I think this gift to him somehow honors the ones who’ve rested already, as it honors his interest in their lives and in mine.
I’m really excited to see my Dad’s face. 🙂
Gosh, I have been so fortunate to be on the receiving end of so many great gifts over the years and for that I am so grateful. One that will always stick in my mind was for Christmas the year that I was 10. My mother had died a few months earlier and after a long battle with cancer, my dad was broke (financially and emotionally). He told my sister and I that Christmas would be very small and that he could only get us one gift each. Christmas morning, under the tree, was that one special gift he each got us (Baby Alive for me, and the game Stop Thief! for my sister). But after we were done opening them he said to look in the tree. There nestled amongst the pine branches was a little wrapped package for each of it and inside was a gold necklace. Something special he had found the money to buy for us. As an adult now, I think back to what a difficult time it must have been for him, being widowed with two young girls and how buying us those necklaces meant so much to him. My dad died a long time ago now, but I will always think of him and that love and generosity when I wear the necklace.
When I turned 30, I was having a emotionally trying time. I had been told I needed surgery for a large tumor on my thyroid that month, my grandfather had passed away a week before and my son, who was one and half years old, was going to be without me (or shall I say, me without him) for a few days while I was in the hospital. And, I was really scared at what all this meant.
For my birthday, my Mom had all my friends and family write notes to me on cards that told me why they loved me or why I was special to them. She assembled them all into a photo album and gave it to me on my birthday.
It not only made me cry, but, it also gave me strength during a difficult time. I could physically see the love and support around me. And, I go to that book when I feel down now to give me strength.
But, a great idea sparked another idea. I now have made a tradition for my son. Every year at his birthday I make a cd of music that surrounded our lives and write a letter to him. When he wants to hear music on “his cd” he gets the album out and I mounted the letters into envelopes in which he can open and get out. I, of course, have to read them to him.
And, at Thanksgiving time, where there is nothing to be given or gotten, it makes one really thankful for friends & family, love & support.
My closest friend and I are constantly exchanging little gifts — for no reason, for the best reasons, just because we love all the same things. More often than not, the items are paper goods or little bird things. We are nearly 20 years apart in age, and she has endured so much in her life — breast cancer, lupus, a mother with severe dementia — but we are so similar, it’s like one person living in two bodies. She got married and moved away less than a month ago, and the morning that the movers were loading up the truck, she gave me a necklace with a small disk that has a picture of the “birds of friendship.” We each have one, and it makes me feel closer to her even when she’s so far away.
My step-mother and aunt happened to notice that I had a few old books in my office in my old apartment in college. When I decided to move from AR to CO, they gave me old books that related to CO. It was such a personal touch. I absolutely loved it!
This Christmas I made a photo book for grandparents that has pictures of my girls throughout the year. My husband once hid diamond earrings in the house and then when he was away in China for work told me where to find them while on the phone. He’s a keeper.
I love these calendars thanks for the chance to win!
Last year for the holidays my husband gave me a card with the “gift of labor” written in it. This year was most productive in terms of things around the house and knocking things off the honey-do list. He also started grocery shopping and cooking. incredible!
Last Christmas my mom arranged to have someone finish a quilt that my husband’s grandma pieced before she died. My mom had gotten together with his grandma a few years before she died and was given the unfinished quilt because she liked it so much. Instead of keeping it for herself, she shared it with us. Really unexpected, but very, very cool.
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the wall calendars that we have at home are just free stuffs that i got from the internet :
its this free giver.