Help me give a great gift!
January 6, 2020 1:00 PM   Subscribe

I want to give a gift to one of my dearest friends on the occasion of our 25th 'anniversary', but I'm struggling to come up with anything great! More details inside...

My dear friend, let's call her Alex, and I have been friends for 25 years, ever since we were flatmates in London. We started a tradition of watching the Oscars together and have done so every year since - for many of those years we were not in the same location, but we would exchange picks beforehand and call each other during every commercial break. To be completely honest, I lost interest in the Oscars many years ago, but this is our thing and I love the tradition and spending time with her.

We both live in the States now, she in the south and me in the northeast, but she travels a lot for work and so we usually manage to see each other 2-3 times a year. For our 20th 'anniversary' and now our 25th, we picked a place we both had never been (and weren't likely to bring our families to) and traveled there to watch the Oscars - 5 years ago it was Savannah, and this year we're going to Memphis.

For our 20th, she made me a personalized deck of cards with pictures of us on the back, which was a great gift because we play gin constantly when we're together. Please help me come up with a great gift for her for this year's Oscars on February 9th!

Some things about her and us:
- we both love traveling and have been many places together. She travels a lot all over the world for work
- she's married with no kids, I'm married with 3 kids. She's close with my 3 kids, who call her aunt Alex
- we love chilling in our PJs, drinking tea and playing cards all day, always gin. We also play board games, especially when we're with our families
- since we've been friends for so long, we know all about each other's families and a good part of every visit is spent catching up on parents, siblings and kids
- she is partial to pigs, Liam Neeson and Harry Potter (not necessarily in that order)
- she's a foodie and eats Paleo at home but we totally pig out whenever we're together - fried pickles is one of our shared loves, as is trying local cocktails

I have tons of photos from our many years together, and would love for pictures to be part of the gift - HOWEVER, neither of us likes a lot of tchotchke type stuff, so it would need to be something useful.

Definitely looking for something that celebrates our friendship, not anything super fancy but I'm happy to put some money towards this. She's one of my bestest and oldest friends and I want to celebrate us! Thank you for your help : )
posted by widdershins to Grab Bag (12 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: Oh, and I forgot to say that her favorite color is purple!
posted by widdershins at 1:02 PM on January 6, 2020


what about a picture mural of different activities and quotes? there are some great ideas on Etsy and Pinterest.
posted by Boyd at 1:28 PM on January 6, 2020


Best answer: Create two sets of custom matching PJs, one for each of you, using one or more of the photos you have from your years together. If you don’t like this company, other companies also do this. Have a great trip!
posted by Bella Donna at 1:40 PM on January 6, 2020 [5 favorites]


you could also make a mug with photos :)
posted by Boyd at 1:48 PM on January 6, 2020


Is she a reader? I made my cousin bookplates with a photo of he and his grandddaughter reading a book together. I used this place. I got the larger plates, the small must be really small. It was simple and they came quickly.
posted by BoscosMom at 4:12 PM on January 6, 2020


It looks like you can get photos on almost anything. They also have wine labels and coasters. They'll give 20% off for new customers if you sign up for their mailinglist.
posted by BoscosMom at 4:22 PM on January 6, 2020


Shutterfly sells sherpa blankets that you can cover with a photo collage. You can get them full size, so they can go on a bed and be useful and cozy. This design was a huge hit with my mom this Christmas.
posted by shadygrove at 5:54 PM on January 6, 2020


Best answer: It's not exactly a board game, but you can get a custom jigsaw puzzle made out of your pictures from Portrait Puzzles. It's something you could do together and have fun remembering each photo. I've ordered from them before, and they do a nice job with a quick turnaround.
posted by pangolin party at 7:08 PM on January 6, 2020


Best answer: Create 6 (themed?) tea blends from Adagio, name them, upload your photos onto the tins, and give her a sampler set. $5/sample, and they'll come in a box. Get her a mug too - travel, purple, custom heat-changing, or official Oscars?
posted by eyeball at 7:41 PM on January 6, 2020 [2 favorites]


Empress Gin is a fancy gin from Victoria, BC. It is also purple! It has a colour change property and will change to pink based on the acid level of your cocktail.

Or a cocktail kit - nice gin, nice vermouth, fancy olives, weird mixers, etc.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 7:27 AM on January 7, 2020


Response by poster: Great ideas, thank you! I marked as best answers the ones I thought would most likely work. I actually really like the jigsaw puzzle idea because it would work well with an assortment of pictures, and she can pack it away when it's not in use. Personalized tea + mugs + PJs are also a great combo gift. I'm off to explore - thx everyone!
posted by widdershins at 8:01 AM on January 7, 2020


Best answer: Give her an Oscar! Get a replica Academy Award trophy engraved with her name and something like "Friend in a Leading Role" or "Lifetime Achievement in Friendship"!
posted by capricorn at 6:30 PM on January 7, 2020


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