They Never Saw It Coming

luxury limousine serviceTogether the 5 of us wanted to do something different and special for Mom and Dad’s 20th wedding anniversary. We are a close family and Mom and Dad are so in love it’s almost creepy. After all these years and so many kids, the light still shines in their eyes when they see each other. We are one of the lucky families, and we know it.

One of the best nights of my life was prom night when my date showed up in a limousine. I felt so special and it started the evening in such a magical way. I’ll never forget that feeling of being chauffeured from home to dinner, to the prom, to a party and then safely back home in a stretch limousine with my friends. It was the kind of feeling I wanted to give to Mom and Dad to celebrate their 20th year wedding anniversary.

We had a couple of weeks until their big day so I quietly put the word out for everyone to think about it. They probably did for about 30 seconds. What was I expecting? They are kids full of after school activities, homework and keeping up with their friends. It seemed I was on my own.

One afternoon in a final attempt to get the lot of them to give me their thoughts we had about 30 minutes to come up with ideas before Mom and Dad would be home from work. Running the age gamut of 19 to 4 years of age we were all over the place with notions. Bess, the youngest volunteered artwork for the refrigerator, the twins, Ryan and Miller wanted to take them to a baseball game. My sister who is intolerably 16 felt like a booklet of babysitting coupons would be just the ticket if accompanied by a bouquet of flowers. I was hearing big hearts, loving thoughts, but slightly less than spectacular ideas for what I thought was a big deal event.

The other issue – money. We all contributed what we could, but it came to a grand total of $43.26. I know without a doubt that Mom and Dad would have loved even just a card, but I was stubborn on this one, and I had an idea of my own. It was time to call in reinforcements; Grandma and Grandpa.

Once I ran the idea past my sisters and brothers they were so excited that getting Gram and Grandpa on board was a cinch. It was hard for Bess to keep a lid on the plan, but we made a game of it and we pulled off the seemingly impossible feat, without a hitch.

They never saw it coming. We told them to dress up and that we had a surprise for them. They played along since they could see by our faces that something big was in the works. When a beautiful black limo pulled up to the curb to whisk them off to a romantic dinner they couldn’t believe we could be quite so imaginative. After all we are just a bunch of kids – kids that love our parents and wanted somehow to let them know how much. They’ll never forget their 20th, and neither will we.