Your morning thought for today:
Success in marriage is much more than finding the right person -- it is a matter of being the right person.

Congratulations to Jennifer Oliver, from Killeen, Texas, our newest Heartwarmer Gem! Today, we are proud to present you The Big Night -- her *Award Winning Heartwarmer* that is a wonderful family story of love and romance on this special day. Remember those family slide shows? Get your tissues out. Yes, Jennifer, "you done good!"

"Aaaawww, look at Jackie!" we chorused, pointing at the sweet picture of my older sister, who had fallen asleep on the toilet when she was two. It was a cherished tradition, these family slide shows, with Dad clicking the button to propel each slide in the carousel into the limelight. Our childhood was documented in that projector as well as the travels that came with being an Army family.

"Hey, it's Mom!" we teased, laughing at a picture Dad had snapped of a wizened, old French woman scrubbing linens on giant slabs of stone, in a primitive version of a laundromat. This was taken while they were stationed in France.

Smiling, Mom shushed us.

One picture though never failed to generate a chorus of ooohs and aaahs. The one of Mom sitting on a log, telling a bedtime story to five pajama-clad kids around a campfire. It was in the mid-1950s, before my time, when they had set up camp on the edge of Canada in an area that was adjacent to what was possibly the most photographed lake of all -- Lake Louise -- with mountains rising up dramatically in the background. We knew what slide came next. The one of the luxury hotel overlooking the lake.

Chateau Lake Louise, it was called. A massive, white structure frequented by the idle rich. It was way beyond Mom and Dad's means to stay at such a ritzy place, so they camped out in the woods nearby.

Besides, it was more fun that way, Dad said. The next slide showed Mom cooking on the grill. And the one after that showed her washing dishes.

Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary was two years away when we -- all eight of us -- began to toss ideas back and forth through a flurry of E-mails. What should we do? Send them to Europe? On a cruise?

Then someone nailed the solution.

Chateau Lake Louise.

Of course.

Now none of us was rich and idle, but together we knew we could pull it off. After extensive research, we voted on a travel package that would include golfing and high tea. For us to say the words "high tea" was like speaking a foreign language. We were just tickled.

As a surprise on Valentine's Day, two months before the big event, my parents were serenaded by a barbershop quartet from the Sweet Adelines, a chorus that Mom had sung with for many years. When the last note trailed off, they handed a poem to Mom to read aloud. Halfway through, she broke down crying. My sister finished reading it for them. The poem instructed my parents to be prepared for the big night. To dress in their finest and to not ask any questions of those who loved them. Then, two months later in April, the big night arrived.

After the white limousine deposited my parents at the clubhouse, they opened the door to find their kids, four on one side and four on the other, with golf clubs crossed like swords through which they were to make their grand entrance.

Two major items were on the program. One was the Goldenwed game, fashioned after the Newlywed concept.

"What was the most memorable gift your spouse ever gave you?" was one question posed to Mom.

"The pearls I'm wearing (from 1949)," she wrote on the small whiteboard, her fingers trailing over the pearls.

Dad's guess to what Mom wrote: "Children."

Oh, what a classic.

The other item on the agenda was the presentation of the gift, done like Wheel of Fortune. Several volunteers stood shoulder to shoulder with their backs to the audience, holding the letters that spelled out "Chateau Lake Louise." One of my sisters, playing Vanna White, turned each guest around as my parents guessed the correct letters.

Whirring in the background, unbeknownst to my parents, was the slideshow projector. Up on the screen was the famous picture of my mother reading a bedtime story to her children around a campfire.

When Dad guessed the right answer, Mom's hands flew up to her mouth. Their eyes swam with tears as they turned and saw that picture, the one that had touched us for so many years.

It was clear from the looks they exchanged.

We did good, didn't we?

by: Jennifer Oliver

Jennifer says, "The bon voyage happened last year, an event that will be treasured for life." If you'd like to see what Chateau Lake Louise looks like, along with taking a "virtual tour" of the surrounding sights, just go here:
Chateau Lake Louise
Jennifer and her husband Stephen, live outside Killeen, Texas, with their four children.

This story may not be reproduced in any way, without the author's written permission.

?