When my Grandma and Grandpa had been married for 50 years, the whole family got together to celebrate their anniversary. With 7 kids, most of whom had children of their own by then, this was no small gathering! Someone put together a photo album of the couple through the years and it was fascinating to watch them literally grow old together in the album.  

That is when it hit me, why not start thinking now at the beginning of my marriage about what I want my 50th anniversary album to look like? And then I hit upon “The Kissing Album”. Every year for the first few years of marriage my husband and I seemed to have someone take a picture of us kissing each other. So what if we make it a point to kiss each other at least once a year on camera, and then we can end up with at least 50 pictures of us loving each other by the time we hit OUR 50th wedding anniversary.

This is great on multiple levels:

1. It helps me to stay focused on the idea that we will be together for 50 years. With so many relationships ending in divorce, it seems important to be planning on staying together forever, no matter what the future brings. Planning for my album is just one way of reminding myself that I am in this for the long haul.

2. My kids may someday be mortified by all the pictures of Mom and Dad kissing. Why have kids if not to mortify them by all the embarrassing lovey dovey stuff you do?

3. I just love kissing pictures. When we photograph engaged couples, weddings, re-commitment ceremonies, or anniversary celebrations, we always end up taking pictures of the happy couple kissing each other, because that is what two people who love each other do to show affection. Kiss together, bliss forever!

Now, maybe the kissing album is not your cup of tea, but its not too early at the beginning of your marriage to be thinking about what kind of relationship you want your grandkids to see in 50 years. Maybe if more people had a 50 year plan, we would learn to let go of the bad things and revel a little more in the joyful times we have together.