"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." ~ Emily Brontë

Today is December 1st and today my son, Chris, and his wife, Kelly, are celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary. They now have three children: Jacob, age 15, Thomas, age 13 and Hagan, age 7.

I've looked all through the large plastic storage container for photos of their wedding, but couldn't find any. I think I may have given all of the pictures to them.

I did keep two small tangible reminders. The first is the newspaper announcement of their wedding:



and one lonely napkin from their reception:



But I have so many memories of their life together so far.

• Their wedding ~ even though it was December 1st, we hosted their wedding reception at our house, around the pool. We rented large propane heaters to place between tables and chairs; strung clear lights throughout the trees behind the deck and wrapped the railing with them; set up the bar underneath the vine covered lanai; and floated flowers and pink hearts in the pool. It was beautiful.


• For Christmas the next year, we gave each of our sons tickets to see original The Phantom of the Opera (with the phenomenal Michael Crawford) and we all dressed up ~ men in tuxedos, women in cocktail dresses ~ and were driven by chauffeured limousine from our homes in San Diego to the theater in Los Angeles, complete with champagne.


• Kelly, Tom and I set our fears aside and pooled our resources to give Chris the skydiving lesson and jump he wanted for his birthday. He survived without injury and has the tape to prove it.


• The plane trip they took from Savannah to Lake Tahoe after Hagan was born to visit us and Mike and his family.


• The trip Chris and Kelly took to New York and Tom and I got to stay with the kids in Savannah.


• My family-reunion-that-wasn't two years ago, but Chris and Kelly made the trip anyway. We camped, skied, swam and had a great time.


• And Tom's family-reunion-that-was last summer, again at the lake. For the family dinner we hosted Chris made his awesome ribs (you can get the recipe here) and Kelly made Roasted Asparagus with Orange. We swam, skied and enjoyed everyone's company. It was a very fun 5 days.

It is impossible to recount 19 years of memories, but I want them to know how proud I am of them for hanging in there, through good and bad. While so many couples give up so quickly, they have made a life-long commitment to each other. Their love for each other extends far beyond the two of them, embracing their children, their family and friends.

Happy Anniversary !!