Mine isn't a physical gift, but rather a memory.

One spring time morning my ex-gf woke up about half an hour after I did and came out naked and just cuddled up on my lap in the easy chair.

It was just an easy half-hour that I'll remember.

If my husband gives me a card, it's all good. If he doesn't even sign it, I'll put it in a garage sale.

It's rarely the expensive stuff, although its nice. It's the silly things she buys me on a whim, whether a Tardis cookie jar or any number of keychains with someone else's name on them.

Had one BF buy me one of those gold-dipped roses. I am so not that sort of girl. Same BF at another time spread a UT sweatshirt I'd been wanting on the bed for me to find, with some climbing carabiners. Now THAT was a great gift. It's just things that show you know the person that make the gifts great.

When my wife and I were dating, I bought her diamond earrings and a diamond pendant for her birthday. I also bought her a T-shirt.

We met on an internet dating site and she had used a pic of herself sitting on a ledge jutting out into King's Canyon in Australia. I had the picture put on to the T-shirt along with her screen name from the dating site.

She was more happy with the T-shirt than the diamonds.

When we were first dating, about 5 months in, I was working nights at a coffee shop, and my husband, then bf, showed up with a single carnation just because. It wound up in a big iced coffee cop with water on a windowsill of the shop, because he wanted me to have a good night, and thought that would do it. He was right.

It wound up in a big iced coffee cop with water on a windowsill of the shop, because he wanted me to have a good night, and thought that would do it. He was right.

That's one cool cop.

Best Inexpensive: A travel clock. On it was engraved the date and time we met, with the inscription, "The minute my heart stopped."

A surprise horseback riding trip at a national park, after I told my friend that I missed riding.

Worst Inexpensive: A plaid schoolgirl mini-skirt, 2 sizes too small.

Various knick-knacks and figurines that were "pretty" or "cute" but not representative of anything I liked.

Any very generic item that is something the person should know I dislike. Something that screams "I didn't put any thought into this."

Best Expensive: My engagement ring, which is a giant stunner. I didn't need or expect such a ring. I would have said yes if it was a ring pop, but I feel exhilarated every time I look at it, and every time someone notices it. I feel like an eight-cow wife.

Also, a trip to Edinborough, where we stayed in a famous suite in a famous hotel.

A hand-sculpted, limited edition of my favorite board game.

Worst Expensive: My ex stood me up on my birthday, citing family issues. (I later found out he was cheating on me and got caught up in a related drama.) When we finally got together, he had diamond earrings that were still in the bag from the jewelry store. It was obvious he had just thrown money at the problem at the last minute and bought me these outrageously expensive earrings that were not at all my taste. He probably let the salesperson pick.

I noted that they were the trendy "past - present - future" three-stone design. Trying to think on his feet, he said something like, "Well, that's so you: Always remembering the past but awaiting the future." Huh? Wearing them felt awkward.

When we broke up, I thought about giving them back, but diamonds are called a girl's best friend for a reason. I followed a friend's suggestion and sold them and gave the money to Planned Parenthood.

My husband can be awesome. One night, we stayed up late talking about all the candies we used to eat as kids, whether or not they still made them and so on. The next day, he went out and bought them all. I came home to a bag full of retro candy. It was so cool. And very sweet, natch.

He got me a Lego girl who looks like Jem from Jem & the Holograms.

Those are the little cheapos that make my heart soar. It means "I saw this and I thought of you.".

The best expensive gifts he ever gave me was a statue that I'd been **drooling** over. And a replica of the necklace Jareth wore in the Labyrinth. I can't bear to take it out of the little velvet box, but it is one of my most treasured items.

since my ex was never much at giving me gifts, EVER...
How about the un-gift?

Somewhere along the way I gave her a river-rock with the word love engraved on it. This I bought from a vendor, but there were other times that I had gotten her river rocks from rivers and waterfalls that she especially liked. We've been divorced 9 years, and she seems to have a box of all the gifts I've ever given her.

Periodically she sends one of those gifts back with one of my kids... 'cuz "she doesn't need it anymore"

One of those times it was that rock with the word love engraved on it. I presume the purpose of that sort of thing is to 'unwrite' our existence as a couple or something. As if those times never were.

My plan is to eventually toss that rock back into a river, with the hope that the next person to find it, also finds it's meaning.

I don't recall the most meaningful gift anyone ever gave me, but I can recall the most meaningful gift I ever gave.

A friend of mine was staying in the VA domiciliary getting treatment for alcoholism. On his Facebook, I happened to notice a picture of him that I liked. He had a very confident look on his face, and it was how I wanted to always see him. So, I drew it. My drawing is better than average, but I wouldn't say I was ready to display my work in an art gallery.

Then, one day in the domiciliary, he happened to be looking working at a computer, so I came up behind him and held my picture out next to his monitor. He stared for what seemed like an awfully long time.

Then he turned and looked to me. "Did you draw this?"

Duh.

"Yeah, I did. Like it?"

Well, he was a lot more impressed with my work than I was. Then I offered it to him and he seemed surprised that I would give it to him.

Like, why else would I draw a picture of him if I wasn't going to give it to him?

But to him, it was special. He said, "No one ever did anything like that for me before."

And it only cost me a sheet of paper from my sketch book and enough of a piece of graphite to draw his picture. Less than ten cents, probably.

A college girlfriend made me a twin-size quilt while we were dating. She put a lot of love and work into it, and I kept it for years. I accidentally left it at a motel miles from home (along with two pillows) where I had foolishly taken it in to sleep with, and lost it, which I regret to this day.

Memorable sweet gift: An ex-bf's mother made me a quilt and pillow one Christmas. It was something typically reserved for DILs, so I thought it was really sweet. It's really nice to have now, as she passed away several years ago.

Memorable funny (bad?) gift: My ex-MIL gave me a roll of packing tape for Christmas. I liked the box it was packed in, but she asked for that back. I still laugh whenever I think about it.

To be fair to her, she made us a gorgeous quilt when we married, and his family will help even complete strangers who are in a pickle.