New Year's Celebrations, December 31, 2013

Some people ask the secret of our long marriage.

We take time to go to a restaurant

two times a week. 

A little candlelight, dinner, 

soft music and dancing. 

She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.

~Henny Youngman 

Chenda Shepard. Happy Birthday tomorrow to our daughter-in-law Chenda Sou Shepard who was born in Cambodia, in the capital city of Phnom Penh, 34 years ago on January 1. After 4 1/2

years in the United States, she lives today in Alameda, California with husband Nathan and children Preslea, Logan and William. The first picture shows Chenda with their youngest son William Quincy Shepard, taken in San Diego last month.

Darrell and Mary Shepard. Today is the wedding Anniversary of Darrell and Mary Medina Shepard, who were married in Abilene, Texas 31 years ago. As I mentioned in my last post, Abilene Christian figured into the wedding plans of Cindy and me many years ago, and it also figured into the wedding plans for Darrell and Mary. They both had attended that Texas school and were living there when they decided to marry on that happy New Year's Eve in 1982. 

Soon thereafter they moved to the West Coast where they have lived ever since. Today they make their home in Kirkland, Washington where they are the parents of Chris, Rachel and Pat and the grandparents of Logan Joseph. The second picture, taken this past summer in Anacortes, Washington shows Darrell and Mary. Also in this picture on the left is birthday girl Chenda Shepard.

New Year Weddings. We usually think of spring or summer as the best time for getting married. But this time of the year -- New Year's Eve and New Year's Day -- has been a popular marrying time for a surprising number of people in our family.

Darrrell's great grandparents Jim and Callie Spear Davis, were married January 1, 1896 (see third picture of Jim and Callie on their wedding day 118 years ago). On that same day in 1903 Jim's brother Tom Davis married his wife Alice Hinton. Those weddings were even in the cold clime of Spencer, Indiana! 

Jim and Callie's youngest daughter Marjorie Davis married John Millikan on January 1, 1931, and -- are you ready for this? -- married her second husband Clyde Williams in 1981, exactly 50 years later, also on New Year's Day. Two of Marjorie's sons were also married that same time of the year: Arlen on Dec 31, 1952, and Gary, Dec 31, 1955. On the Gower side of the family, my aunt Vicki Gower Johnston married Al Perry Dec 31, 1973.

There may be others in our family who were married on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, each with their own interesting story to tell. Do you know of others?
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Steve Shepard