The Gift Makes The Wedding Anniversary Memorable!
Oct 17th, 2008 by Dane Masters
My husband and I will have been married for twelve years this coming March. Twelve years - I can’t believe we made it! We started out as mere children, with no idea what the future held in store. Now, having matured and grown together, we have two happy, healthy children, a rambling old house, a pile of debt and each other.
This day was considered very special in our house. As young children, we would count our pennies and coins with care, since we wanted to gift our parents the best anniversary present ever! The perfect card was hunted out, even if it took weeks to do so! And best of all, we bought all the ingredients for a cake and baked it ourselves! Truly their wedding anniversary was something to look forward to!
I remember one year, during a time period when our mother was in love with everything wicker and rattan, we found what we considered to be the best gift ever! In a little, whimsical gift shop in town, in the very front window sat a little wicker basket. Inside the basket were five coaster, each with an intricate wicker frame. The centre of each coaster had an asian-inspired water color painting, protected behind glass. My sisters and I were in love! This would indeed be our very best wedding anniversary present we had ever found for our parents! We entered the store, wide-eyed and shyly went to the customer service desk to ask about the price. We found out that the coaster set was only $7.50! That left us with just over $3.00 after tax - plenty to pay for gift wrapping and maybe even a bow!
Years later when things weren’t so happy in our family, I remember a huge argument between our parents. I’m still sad to remember seeing my mother clear one of the coffee table with a swipe of her arm. That was the coffee table that had been home to our little coaster set, that my sisters and I had bought with such love and esteem for our parents marriage.
Despite all the storms and battles, our parents did stay together for a lifetime. And every wedding anniversary was celebrated with gusto and nice gifts. At times, it was just cards as gifts, containing our best wishes; sometimes, expensive gifts bought by everyone pooling their finances together. Naturally, the gifts bought as adults were more expensive than the ones we had bought when we were kids. Even now, the wicker basket with its coasters is remembered with fondness because we had spent so much time tracking the gift and had presented it with such love! But the broken and scratched coaster set still sits on top of a shelf, put there by our parents to remind them of our token of love. Despite its dusty and cracked appearance, it is testimony to a marriage that has survived the stresses of time!
Both our children have picked up our love for celebrating wedding anniversaries! Just like us, they prepare special cards for us and bake a special cake on that day. Then of course, there are the gifts chosen with such care and love!
