Jill Kolongowski: A few years ago, I went to buy RENT tickets for my sister. Too late, I realized it was only the presale, and the actual tickets wouldn’t go on sale until after Christmas, when there was a chance we wouldn’t get tickets at all. I needed a password for the presale. On a whim, I started guessing. AND I GUESSED THE PASSWORD (it was “RENT,” if you were wondering). We ended up with front-row seats, close enough to see the actors crying real tears. It was probably the best THING I’ve ever done, let alone gift.
Rosemary Van Deuren: An engagement ring—when I proposed to my fiance on New Year’s Eve. I got down on one knee and popped the question to him at the stroke of midnight (well, close—I was 8 minutes late). And yes, you read that correctly. I am a lady and my fiance is a fella. When a friend said to him, “Don’t you think it’s kind of weird that she proposed to you?” my fiance replied, “What’s wrong? Don’t you think I’m a good catch?”
Mike Vincent: A Christmas Day Mix CD to my girlfriend (now wife) for our first Christmas together in 2001. I put a lot of effort into the disc and it felt genuine at the time, does now too. She made me a lamp using stones from the beach in Frankfort and found old-school HUGE Christmas lights that we flipped on while on her couch on Park Lake Road. I still have the lamp.
Kevin Mattison: My wife is Indian. She is also Jain. I am neither of these things, a fact her mother was fond of bringing up in the early goings of our relationship. How would we raise children when she has religion and I have none? I was able to answer that question this year when my wife was given her first official classroom teaching job and I decided to get her a gift for all of her hard work.
If you entered our home through the kitchen you would see the small, makeshift temple my wife had put together on a bit of free counter space. It hardly creates an atmosphere of spiritual importance, but our home is small and it would have to do for the time being. After she got her job I immediately contacted her parents and informed them that I would like to get her a real temple, one that we could put upstairs next to our room in its own space, which is where it now sits. Her mother was elated. Score one for the new husband