What was your favourite present ?

My OH made me a bird box with a camera inside. Cannot begin to express how much that is the perfect present for me. Now all that is needed is for him to put it up, some tits to take up residence with the TV tuned in to our own bird channel and hopefully we will have hours and hours of pleasure watching them raise a family.

My best present was having my DH, our children, their partners and DGD all together for Christmas dinner for the first time ever. Difficult in laws have made this impossible in previous years for my DS and DIL. I looked around the table and saw how happy and settled my children were. Great memories of a very happy day. I have always encouraged them to keep the peace and spend Christmas with DIL's parents. However, as I have been ill, my children decided they would host everything and let in laws do their own thing.

I also got a calendar with a picture of my DGD for every month, so I will always see her cheeky wee face looking at me.

This is the first time in 39 years I have not made Christmas dinner. I feel so relaxed this morning, instead of the usual exhaustion and having to clear up! In saying that I am cooking a turkey crown this morning, as of course we have no leftovers, the best bit, according to DH.

A calendar made up of family photos from the past year. One of our DiLs does one for us every year and incorporates both DSs families. We always love it!

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Neversaydie that brought a lump to my throat, so thoughtful.

My main gift from DH is perfume which I asked for, Dune by Dior. However by far the best present is the memorial candle he put in my stocking!!! Oh how we laughed and laughed! He'd gone shopping without his specs and assumed it was a wee romantic verse.

I received the most appropriate present ever: a bag printed with the statement, "After two Gins, Penny believed she could knit anything." So true!

no surprises really, I had asked DD for 2 new blinds, one for kitchen (black as I have black & white tiles) & one for bedroom - bright colour as room is going to be mostly cream & I want a splash of colour, good excuse for new bedding etc. Blind is fuschia so very bright pink which will give me great scope for colour matching (I'm not particularly girly but love bright colours)

I love the idea of crafty things but they never reach the professional standards I seek to attain. This year my "main" present was a Janome sewing maching for beginners - I've always wanted to try my hand at sewing and dressmaking and above all to make my Wiccan robes so this is the perfect present for me.

My sister bought me a sketch book, watercolour pencils and a special carry case for sketching en plain air. She had clearly given a lot of thought to what I might like.

A (homemade) voucher from the DDs promising to pay for my SIL and I to take the train up Snowden and meet them at the top when they walk up later this year (the cake is also on them)
Sadly neither she not I are up to the walk any more but the summit is one of my favourite places And the train is very expensive .

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A cute family photo frame showing all my DCs & their partners names names along with their children's names it has pride of place on my kitchen wall,also a picture of me and DGGD 9mths which was a surprise visit on Christmas morning at DDs house she was overwhelmed with all the attention she got,her daddy is very hands on with her and brought her over to visit whilst her mummy had a relaxing bath before she started the days events with their little family,he is such a lovely daddy and hubby.

Two roman coins circa 300CE

A lovely snuggly hooded fleece for wearing about home - lounge wear I think you call it. So warm and cosy.

Our friend is currently in a Greenman phase, but I'm not keen! My favourite carving she has done is a unicorn but DH didn't like that. She usually has a piece of wood to work on and waits to see what it wants to be!

I always , as a joke , call my house The Hovel . In the summer I bought L.O.V.E wooden letters but bought an extra H to turn it into Hovel .
On Christmas Eve I opened my present from my daughter an sil , it was a door sign - The Hovel !
I love it !!

We have all been very lucky it seems. My best thing though not a gift was watching my 11 year old Jack Russell go crazy with the boxes and wrapping paper, chewing it all to bits. It was like seeing him as a puppy again.

Skyping my adorable grandson and watching him open the present I bought him and playing with it ?

6 jars of marmalade from a friend.

kitty the voucher sounds a great idea. Have you any thoughts on what it will be ?

H is past buying gifts but I had some nice things from family, including a case of wine, they know me too well.
However my favourite is a bright red tote bag which I bought for myself. I ordered it online so I hadn't seen it, so I didn't open it until last night and it is lovely, just what I wanted.

A calendar my son made for us with their family photographs from the past year. Some beauties. Love it

That sounds lovely nina - l love art deco.

I had two that I love. One is a fine silver bracelet with amethyst and rose quartz stones.

The other is a 'voucher', from DH, to commission a wood carving to put on a bit of flat roof outside the 'glass corridor'.

The person who will do the carving is the lady who puts our garden to bed every year. She lives on a narrow boat, carves and sells her work on the canal bank and balances rocks with special needs children. She also does dry stone walling.