I look at my rambling old home, our two wonderful children, and realize that March will signify our twelfth marriage anniversary! When we were just betrothed, we were rather young and foolish. Today, we are all grown up and mature. Not even knowing looking into the future or knowing what it would bring for us, we had come this far successfully! And we have no idea about how time went by so fast!

Our family has always been big on celebrating wedding anniversaries. As children, we would get so excited about our parents anniversary. We would spend weeks working on the perfect card, buying ingredients and baking a wondrous cake, and gathering up our coins and pennies to buy the most fantastic wedding anniversary present ever!

There was a time during our childhood days when our mother loved things made of rattan and wicker. So naturally we went hunting for something like that for her gift. And in a small shop tucked away somewhere in the town, we did find what we consider one of the nicest gifts ever presented to her! It was a small wicker basket with coasters. Each coaster had a water color painting on it--the painting was Asian in style and colored with glass. All the five coasters had wicker frames. There was no question about it--this would be our gift to our parents. My sisters and I fell in love with the basket. After paying $7.50 for the basket and its contents at the customer service desk, we were left with $3, which was enough to get gift wrapping paper and even a bow.

Like all families, ours had their fights and arguments too. During one such fight which threatened to turn violent, our mother swiped one of the coffee tables with her arm. The coasters were placed on that table and came down with a crash! It seemed like our esteem and love for our parents lay shattered near the table! The event still fills me with sadness!

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!

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