50 years!

On February 6th our good friends joined us for a party to celebrate Dan, who is not only an amazing husband and father, but also a respected and well-loved friend, co-worker, and neighbor.

To prepare, I started weeks before and sorted through all the memorabilia we have carted with us through our married life but never really organized. I threw out some stuff and categorized and organized everything else. In the end, I was able to pull out some fun memorabilia to display at Dan's party.

Items displayed included the bill from the hospital for Dan's birth, newspapers from the day of his birth, newspaper clippings featuring Dan the cute young kid, papers he wrote in elementary, middle, and high schools, advertisements for his high school deejay service, Cub Scout and Boy Scout patches, his high school ASB card, guitar songbooks from his teenage years, yearbooks, mementos from Israel and Venezuela (where he served his mission), and pictures of our family through the years.

The day of the party I ran to pick up some last minute supplies and I found these flowers for the serving table. I thought it was very funny that the store had inserted a football decoration into a bundle of flowers.  What?  I'm guessing they were aimed at guys who needed to apologize in advance to their wives for spending the weekend in front of the TV?

I bought or prepared all Dan's favorite desserts and munchies: peach pie, German chocolate pie, Chunky Monkey banana cream pie, carrot cake, graham crackers and frosting, mixed nuts, and popcorn.  The other counter also had some fruits and veggies for those who wanted to be healthier.

I had bought some decorations online, including a special 50th birthday set of candles. The problem is, when I dumped out the individual candles I couldn't remember what it was supposed to say!  A few of our friends at the party relished the challenge, and figured out that the individual letters spelled "OH NO THE BIG 50".

Dan had prepared a really fun game to play at the party. The game masterfully involved each of the couples, highlighting our "link" to them and our history with them. Other questions were about music and TV theme shows from the 70s and 80s and multiple choice questions about funny stories from Dan's life. The game was a HIT!  He is probably the only person who would enjoy running the game at his own party! 

We feel so lucky to have such amazing friends. They add so much to our lives and have blessed us in so many ways.

After his party Dan remarked, "that was perfect in every way.  I couldn't have imagined a better night with friends for my birthday."  So, I would say it was a success!