Gather Stories For A 50th Anniversary

Today, longtime friends are celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Ken and I did the same in June of 2014. It's a real milestone that can be marked with a family dinner, an Open House for family and friends, or perhaps a special trip for the anniversary couple.

Couples receive cards and money trees, flowers and maybe a magnificent cake like the one pictured. here. Another gift that could become a treasure is for the children of the couple to make up a book of stories and pictures that highlight the 50 years. It can't be done in a short time, so you would need to start well ahead of the big day. It could be the most treasured gift received--one that the couple will read over and over again.

About a month ago, I wrote about making a book of family stories for my youngest brother's 60th birthday. You can read it here if you missed it. You can learn what I did to make the book a simple project.

It's definitely easier to put a book like together if you've been writing the family stories for some time and have a treasure trove of them at hand. If you are starting from scratch, be sure to begin well ahead of the anniversary party. If time is short, write one all-inclusive piece instead of many individual stories. If at all possible, plan ahead so you can have a lot of stories. What about 50 stories for 50 years? Might be a bit daunting but maybe not.

Some things that can be included:

1. Their wedding

2. Honeymoon

3. children they had (birth dates, order etc)

4. family vacations

5. places they lived through the years

6. jobs they had

7. intersts/hobbies  they had

8. retirement years

9. travels as a couple

10. how they dealt with the Empty Nest

11. cars they had over the 50 years

12. houses they had over the 50 years

13. churches they may have attended

14. grandchildren/great-grandchildren

Fifty years together deserves some special recognition. Next week-end, Ken and I will celebrate 51 years. A lot of the stories I've written would make up a book of our married life. Hallmark and other similar companies sell baby books to record all those cute and wonderful things our children do as they grow. Maybe they should sell books to record the multiple years of married life.