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My parents are celerating a major anniversary soon and we 3 kids plus spouses and children are attending church with them followed by a nice brunch. My parents are then leaving for a European trip (on a tour).
Does anyone have any ideas for a thoughtful gift that the 3 of us can go in on? I am thinking max of $300 total. I know my parents don't want us to spend a lot given that my brother and my husband were both looking for work for a while (both are now gainfully employed--but my parents would not want us to be excessive).
A family photo is out for the time being because we cannot all get together beforehand and my parents do not want a photographer at the brunch.
We thought about contributing to their trip but all their excursions have already been paid for.
They have "everything", so to speak, so I am not sure what we could buy them.
The best gift we ever gave my parents was a "memory book". We bought one from the Exposures catalog. It came with pages that we sent out to all their friends, relatives and even the original members of their bridal party. We asked everyone to write out a favorite memory that they shared with my parents, and enclose a picture if possible.
Recently, my aunt gave my grandmother a wonderful gift. She had pulled together photos of each of her sets of grandparents together, plus her parents, plus her children, plus herself and her husbad and so on and so on... she had all the photos copied in nice, sharp black and whites, then had them all framed together, family tree style - married couples only though. As all of us, through my generation, are married, it was a wonderful gift. I want one myself! I asked my aunt for copies of all the photos she used, so I can make it for myself and won't have to be fighting my dad, aunt and cousins for it when Grandma goes.
An aunt and uncle just celebrated their 50th anniversary. Their kids hosted a party -almost a surprise one but didn't quite pull it off. They put together a power point slide show with pictures scattered through it from all sorts of times, with all sorts of people. From pics from when the couple were kids themselves to pics from the week before. There was no order to it and that actually made it a blast to watch. They kept it running on a loop for the entire time the party was going on. It was a HUGE hit for everyone. Since it was technically on a computer it takes up no physical space and can be kept forever, added to and enjoyed for however long they wish.
Give your Dad $300 dollars cash for spending money. Trust me any child that gives money back to their parents at anytime in their life will be well remembered. Especially if you can tie it to a time in your life when they bailed you out.
I daughter gave me 100 dollars recently for my birthday. She said it was a small repayment for helping get her to college. Jeez I could not stop crying for hours.
If you do decide on just giving a monetary gift, maybe have the dollars changed into Euro's (or Pounds if they are going to England) so they can use the money on their trip. Besides doing the exchange at a bank stateside will eliminate a lot of the excessive fees the currency exchange places charge in the tourist traps.
Maybe throw in a pocket translator and spare batteries as well so they can look up convenient phrases while they are away. Something like this is pretty cheap and got good reviews:
If you want one larger gift that has more uses, what kind of camera do they have? $300 could buy a decent digital camera and a large memory card. This will let them take nice photos of their trip and it can always be focused on the grandkids after they get back.
If you do decide on just giving a monetary gift, maybe have the dollars changed into Euro's (or Pounds if they are going to England) so they can use the money on their trip. Besides doing the exchange at a bank stateside will eliminate a lot of the excessive fees the currency exchange places charge in the tourist traps.
I was going to recommend the same thing. It's what we do when someone travels outside the country.
Plus, there's the obligatory mushy letter to be tucked in their luggage. For this occasion maybe all of the family members can write something and the letter(s) can be given to them at the party. Then Mom and Dad can be told to open it while they're away.
Cut to parents sitting on the hotel bed in Florence weeping over what wonderful children they raised.
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