Reply to 50th Anniversary Gift -- what trip will 10K buy?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are you sure your parents would accept such a generous gift from their children?

I can't imagine allowing my adult children to spend that kind of money on me; i would prefer for them to save for their future and for their children.

[/quote]

OP here. They are absolutely the sort who don't want us to spend our money on them. But they spend far more on us during the year, so as far as I'm concerned, it's more of an accounting issue than actual money being transferred. If I don't actually buy something, though, they'll never take it. I can't just say, "let us contribute airfare to the destination of your choice -- book it, and we'll pay you back." They'd never do that. So I want to pick an amount that isn't stingy, but also won't make them angry at us!

This is their 50th anniversary. I can't do nothing. My mother nixed any sort of party. We had planned to throw them a big shindig like they threw for my grandparents' 50th, but she said absolutely not. That would have cost us probably 25K at least (we're not in DC, but not in the cheapest part of the world either). They probably would have insisted on paying for part of that.

Then, I suggested a dinner with only family and close friends. Mom said no. I have ideas about why she doesn't want a party, but she's never going to tell me the real reason. My dad would love a party, but he has been difficult to live with all these 50 years (he has his good points, obviously), so I'm going to go with mom's wishes here.

So, I went back to plan b. Originally, that was a Mediterranean cruise, with stops in places like Italy and Greece where they've always wanted to go. But my dad has gotten really weird about overseas travel (he watches far too much cable news in retirement), and I wasn't sure he would actually agree to go. So I thought we'd get them a gift certificate from a travel agency, and let them decide what they want to do. They are not going to do "adventure travel;" no Macchu Picchu or Antarctica, for example. But I'd like them to have enough money to choose from a variety of destinations either in the US or abroad.[/quote]

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