The most fun thing about a one-year wedding anniversary is not eating year-old pastry, it's revisiting the gift list!
The rule in this culture, as I understand it, is that you have one year after a wedding to give the couple a gift. I expected most people to wait as long as possible since I'm such an asshole and they didn't think anyone would stay married to me for a year. But almost everyone gave us a gift right away.
Almost all of our guests gave us a wedding gift, with two notable exceptions: my wife's two sisters didn't give us anything. Nothing. Not a dime.
My two brothers cut us huge checks that I felt bad accepting, especially considering that neither one of them makes very much money. My two sisters-in-law, conversely, are both attorneys in big law firms in Manhattan.
There was a brief moment when I was upset that neither one of my sisters-in-law gave us anything. But then I realized that they actually gave me the greatest gift I could ask for in a new marriage: concrete proof that my family is better than my wife's.
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