Three-Ohhhh

The past week was one of the most stressful weeks I can remember, but it was all for a good cause.  I successfully threw Brian a Surprise 30th Birthday Party!  It was stressful because the party was at our house so anything and everything I bought for the celebration had to be stashed at a friend's house.  My thoughts all week were about the party but I could not talk about it with anyone or leave any to-do lists lying around (not that Brian would have looked at a to-do list!)  I could not prepare for the party at the house until one hour before, when his dad got him out of the house to take him to a new bike shop in town.  Five minutes after we thought they had left, Brian popped back in the back door and said in a bewildered voice, "What is going on?!"  Stunned to see him, I thought we had blown it.  I had just told the kids not 10 seconds before what was happening and now they couldn't help but start talking about food being hid in the closet, bubbling over with excitement about something.  But it turned out Brian came in to try to find his dad, who had stopped at the neighbor's house to give them some misdelivered mail and had stayed to chat, leaving Brian confused about where his dad was.  Russ came out of the neighbor's house and then they left.  

My mother-in-law Leslie and I weren't sure if the surprise had been ruined.  I went to pick up a babysitter who would help watch the 11 kids who would be there and my friends who had been keeping the food arrived and we spent a mad hour setting up.  

When Brian arrived, he was completely SURPRISED!  Hooray!   I wish I had a video or better picture of his face but another guest said, "His face said it all."  He couldn't believe all the people who had suddenly arrived at our house.  

 I had even made a decoy dinner for him before he went to the bike shop so he was surprised to see a different spread in the kitchen.  I had to come up with an efficient way to feed 26 people without preparing anything ahead of time.  So I did the logical thing, made them cook their own when they got here.  I had all the fixins' of a grilled cheese bar, spread out and labeled on butcher paper, for them to make their own sandwich.  Four kinds of bread, 6 kinds of cheese, ham, turkey, bacon, olives, green chiles, tomatoes, pickles, sun dried tomatoes, french fried onions, and yummy spreads like cherry jam, roasted red pepper and eggplant, and pepper jelly.  My friends brought electric griddles so many sandwiches could be cooked at a time.  Plus I made my favorite holiday punch, Sandra Lee's "Kid's Cranberry Citrus Punch".  It's kid's punch because it's Sandra's only drink recipe that doesn't involve alcohol.  HA!

Pumpernickel, gouda, french fried onions, bacon, and cherry jam were popular on sandwiches!  

We had a white elephant gift exchange which brought lots of laughs.  They know of Brian's distaste of the saxophone and someone brought a Kenny G Christmas cd.  We played some minute to win it games and were impressed with how skilled and competitive our friends are.

It was a really special, happy night.  We are so lucky to have made some great friends here.  This year has been hard but we have been buoyed up by the love and support of our family and friends.

And Brian has one more week in his twenties.  I did the party early since we'll be busy with Thanksgiving festivities in Fort Worth later this week.