When I look back at all of the wonderful, generous gifts I’ve received over the years, one of my favorite presents was one of the most unexpected (and frugal!)

I was in college, living in the dorms.  I had a room all to myself, but hardly any furniture.

One night I came home from a Communications Club meeting (yeah, I know) to find a note on my door.  It said, “Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas, Christina! Love, Susan and Nick”

I was a little perplexed that my two friends would write that – they’d helped me celebrate my birthday the week before and Christmas wasn’t for another couple of weeks.

I unlocked my door and immediately sensed something was different in my room.  I turned on the light and there, sitting in one corner of my room, was a gold-colored recliner.  Well-worn, but oh-so-comfortable.

My friends had known how much I would love a piece of furniture for my room, but didn’t have the budget to get anything.  They’d gone to a store called “Diggers” which is a few steps below your average thrift store and a few steps above digging through a dumpster.  They sell everything by the pound.  And they got me that great chair for just a couple of bucks!

They managed to squeeze that chair into Nick’s car and haul it all the way across campus. Then they somehow convinced an R.A. friend of ours to let them into my room so they could surprise me.  And it was a wonderful surprise!

But what surprised me most was how such a simple, inexpensive gift, could mean so much to me.  I now had a great place to sit and study or to take a nap.  If a friend came over, they didn’t have to sit on the bed or the floor.  It was a great chair – one that I was honored to pass on to Nick after I graduated.

The bottom line is this:  It was the thought that counted. It didn’t matter that the recliner was old, or gold, or that the arms were worn.  It mattered that my friends cared about me enough to go to the trouble of doing something nice for me. It just shows that the best gifts don’t have to cost a lot of money to be memorable.

What was the most memorable gift you’ve received?  What made it meaningful?