40th Anniversary Gift

[SuzySunshine]

Not sure where to put this...

Next Saturday is my in-laws 40th anniversary. Luckily all 8 of us will be together for a cousin's wedding so we plan to go out to brunch Sunday morning just the 8 of us since the rest of the weekend will be spent with extended family. We would like to get them a gift from the 6 of us but all 4 adults are coming up with nothing. We are taking the big trip for the adults in September but we still fell like we should get them something.

She likes to read, play bridge and they like to go out to eat and on vacations though they are limited some because she is gluten free. He likes to read and play golf, they both do actually though they don't play near as much as they used to.

iMSN collective always has great ideas - let me have them!

[ladymoreta]

How nice! What's your budget per person?

[SuzySunshine]

At this point we don't really have a budget, we're just trying to come up with ideas. They are paying for our entire trip in September, for all 6 of us so something nice would be good but MIL also gets embarrassed easily when someone spends a lot on her.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Do they both have a Kindle? What about a few pre-paid rounds of golf? I think the his-hers Kindles (with covers/cases would be nice especially with the trip coming up.

[Meenah]

How about a gift of a professional family portrait of all of you to be done at a later date. You could put individual pics of all of you in a card for next weekend with the promise of a professional sitting in the future.

[oceanchild]

Do they both have a Kindle? What about a few pre-paid rounds of golf? I think the his-hers Kindles (with covers/cases would be nice especially with the trip coming up.

Yeah, e-readers are great for travel if they don't already have them. I've held out on getting one, but every trip I go on I want one more and more.

[ladymoreta]

Ooh, I love the e-reader idea! And the pictures would be great, too.

[Tenacious_D]

I think you can do a larger assortment gift. We bought a nice basket at the container store for my in-laws and filled it with items from the year they got married. A bottle of wine from their year, a cd of the top ten music from that year, a list of major news stories, a photo collage with a copy of their wedding program. I think if you add a kindle and golf gift to the basket that would be great individual and group gift that they could both appreciate.

Have fun at the wedding and anniversary celebration.

[SuzySunshine]

The kindles are an interesting idea - MIL is just a big paper book person, I'm not sure she'd use one. BIL might have some insight into that...

The basket is a great idea but I have no idea how we'd get access to their wedding pictures/program without them knowing...

[HouseofWool]

Do either of them have any siblings that might have wedding pictures, or even just pics of them dating?

[SuzySunshine]

MIL only has one brother and his son is the one getting married next weekend so they're a little busy. FIL has one brother we could ask, his wife is big into family history, etc. so they might have something...

[SoonerTexan]

What Kris suggested...my mom blew up an old pic from my grandparents younger days for their 50th and they loved it

[Pollyanna]

It's likely too late for this but we did a scapbook for my parents's 40th. From dating all the way through the present. But you'd need someone on the inside to get the old photos, scan them and reprint. My guess is that they don't need more "stuff" and I would go with something more sentimental.

[SuzySunshine]

Yeh, we threw them this great party for their 30th so something sentimental would have been great but with the move I'm just now thinking of this and of course the boys don't think of these things.

[Pollyanna]

How about a nice letter with quotes from all their kids/inlaws about what they have learned from watching their marriage. Sort of an extended thank you letter.