Larry just celebrated a milestone birthday and he expressed a desire for a party! Tori planned a get together that also included my birthday as we are born a week and five years apart. Although I heavily resisted the idea of a party, I had a wonderful time and appreciated everyone taking the time to send good wishes.
Luckily, it wasn't a surprise so we could all clean the house on Saturday and prepare the refreshments.
Slow cooked pork butt made for a delicious BBQ, with homemade cole slaw, served on potato rolls.
It hit the spot.
Cindi brought a vegetable tray and we all were amazed that the cauliflower got eaten up first.
When does that ever happen?
In addition to our own family, we had Mom and Dad and some of our cousins who came to join us. That all helped to make the party great fun. Very typically, I will prepare for a party and be all ready but have forgotten the most important part- to invite folks! I am always under the impression that people are too busy and I don't want them to have to buy a gift etc....As it turned out, there were no gifts but only cards and good wishes. That suited me perfectly! I couldn't imagine having to give gifts so close to Christmas and that was freaking me out.
At the same time, Sundays are great for visiting! There is always enough food, for like the loaves and fishes, it multiplies to feed everyone. Next time, I need to pick up the phone to invite more family and not feel like I am imposing on their free time. We do try to run a guilt free operation here, so when Jeff and Chelsea texted to say they just couldn't make it, we all let them know how glad we were that they could just say that and then stay home to get something necessary accomplished!
One of these contests was very evenly matched and took awhile to complete. The other one was not so evenly matched and was over in seconds!
It is always a pleasure to see our grandchildren and in fact, we had four generations present as we often do.
How sweet it is!
Natalie came in later after a day of fox-hunting to join the festivities, happy that everyone was still there.
Grandma and Grandpa brought us balloons for the purpose of giving away to all the children, which the kids all loved. Maybe we will continue their tradition of giving gifts on our birthday to the grandchildren instead of receiving them!
I appreciate the effort that Tori put into organizing this party and for getting a special cake made. It was a lot of fun and I am so glad that my fears gave way to appreciating the moment. You never know how many birthdays one will have and I am glad that we could celebrate this one together and with our family as well.
