Hello, Viveca: 

Thank you for inviting me to participate in your friend's book of marriage traditions. My parents had one that I'd like to share: 

Ellen and Andy were married 44 years and liked to take walks together. On the weekends before Valentine's Day, their anniversary, and their birthday (they were both born on August 14), they would stop at the stationery store, separate, and pick out cards for one another. Even though they were careful not to show them until the day of the big event, they often found they'd bought each other the same card.  

After Ellen became sick with a brain tumor and lost her ability to walk, Andy continued their weekend tradition and brought cards to her in bed. By their birthday that year, she had lost consciousness. Andy went out for his walk, picked out a card, signed it, and propped it on her dresser. It was their last birthday together. She died six days later. 

Thank you Terry! Everyone give her blog a visit - she's doing great stuff at:
http://www.happygirlmusing.blogspot.com

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My husband Christian and I have two ‘anniversaries.’ One is our wedding day, of course. We just celebrated our tenth. But the other is even more special in some ways, and we’ve built up a tradition over the years as to how we celebrate it.

We met on Halloween night thirteen years ago, at a uniquely charming Chinese restaurant in Bergen County, NJ. At the time, we were living ten minutes away from each other but didn’t know it. We’ve been together ever since that night, and each Halloween we’d go back to ‘our’ Chinese restaurant to commemorate that wonderful first meeting.

When we left NJ for sunny CA six years ago, I wistfully thought we should fly back each Halloween to celebrate our meeting, but of course the idea wasn’t too practical. Thus, each Halloween we search for a Chinese restaurant in our area that would match our favorite one. Alas, we are still searching. Nothing seems to even remotely resemble the ambiance of that special place. Nonetheless, we celebrate our meeting - with Chinese food, togetherness, and sweet memories of the night we each met our soul mate.

Thank you Erica! Fiction Prize Winner & Author of Travels With My Lovers

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My grandfather met and fell in love with my grandmother during WWI. He was recuperating from injuries at the Hospice de Beaune in France - she and her 4 sisters were entertaining the recuperating soldiers. He never had a good for her music or her singing but he had an eye for her ... Their courtship lasted years - the time it took for him to return to America and make enough of his fortune to afford to return for her and take her away.

He promised her father he would send her back whenever he could and keep contact with her family. And so he did. Once she returned to her family for a year while he studied and struggled to pass the bar exam. This began my mother's Love affair France and connected her to our cousins "over there."

My grandmother died in 1988 at the age of 88. Not only did she return often to France but her family - her nephews and nieces and cousins - came to live with them and grew to Love America.

It was my mother who updated this tradition of connection. She decided that a family member would always attend the weddings. And so we have - year after year - been a part of the best of times - the best of celebrations. Last year at my wedding many of my cousins were there including my beloved godfather - her nephew who lived several years with them in Los Angeles when he was studying at UCLA.

Love always comes full circle. Now it is up to me to keep the connection alive.

-Viveca Stone-Berry

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We have room for yours! Please e-mail Sheryl Kurland at: Sheryl@EverlastingMatrimony.com, or call her at 407-786-7747

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More * More * More 

Jeffry and Harriet attended the Master's Golf Tournament several years ago in August, Georgia.  A highlight was the egg-salad sandwiches they purchased at the concession stands, which they raved were "Delicious!"  They haven't returned to the golf tournament, but annually, on the weekend of the event, they have a picnic with egg-salad sandwiches! 

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Mike and Lillian, who've been married over 50 years, have a rock garden in their backyard commemorating every trip they've taken together.  Wherever they have traveled, near or far, they bring home a rock, write on it where it came from and the date, and then they add it to the rock garden.  Thus, the rock garden has expanded over the years and it's truly a garden of wonderful memories.

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A Family Holiday Tradition

Every year I host Thanksgiving dinner and the past 3 years have incorporated some sort of activity into the meal. For instance last year my daughters and I painted different words on river rocks put them in small (2 inch) bags decorated for fall. We placed them in a bowl and at the end of the meal (during desert) we asked everyone to pick a bag from the bowl. We then asked each person what the word they had chosen meant to them.

The year before I asked everyone to write down what they were grateful for and put it in the Thanksgiving Box. During desert each person drew out a piece of paper from the box and read what was on it. They could either guess who wrote it or the person could simply tell us it was her or him.

Both these activities went over very well - everyone loved them (BTW we have anywhere from 18 to 28 at the tables including children). They brought tears and laughter to everyone! People are actually excited and sending me messages wondering what I am going to "come up with" this year.

Thank you! Heidi. Founder & CEO - The WECAI Network -
"helping women do business on and off the WEB." at www.wecai.org

Make checking in with yourself - taking your pulse - a regular event. The better you feel the more Loving and patient and adverturous and amorous and playful and connected you will be with all the Loves in your life.

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