When I was probably about 6 or 7 years old, my father was in the Army and our family was stationed at Fort Monmouth, NJ. I loved Barbie dolls, but my parents couldn’t afford to buy any accessories for her, although probably back then there weren’t as many things for Barbies as there is now.

However, on Christmas morning, I opened a wonderful gift. My mother and dad gave me a suitcase full of Barbie clothes. My mother had made a full wardrobe. I loved it.

Years later, when we’d moved to Pennsylvania to live next door to my cousins and my father was overseas, I’d played Barbies with my cousins. They had a car for their Barbies and even a house. I had the best clothes, though!

When I was a mother myself, my daughter didn’t love Barbies like I did, and I never made her the clothes although I kept thinking I would.

However, I told my mother how wonderful that gift had been for me, and she looked at me in surprise.

“We didn’t have any money,” she said. “It was all we could afford.”

I guess it is true that it doesn’t matter how much something costs. What counts is the love that goes into it.

What gift did you get as a child that you remember to this day?