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Friday, August 28, 2009

60th Birthday Party

One of the photos of dh opening one of his 60 gifts. He got some nice gifts too.


My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.

All my kids- son-26, son-21, grandaughter-6 mos, daughter-28, and son-in law-28



My sister-in-law is included in this photo.


So here is how the birthday party played out. First let me just say that my husband does not like being the center of attention. He does not like giving gifts, nor does he like getting them. He would just as soon all birthdays just breeze on by. So when his 60th birthday was approaching, I asked him if he would like to have it with friends, and he said no. Usually for birthdays, we always either go out to eat or he fries catfish for everyone. He is the best fish fryer in the whole wide world. But we couldn't have him cook on his birthday. So we decided that it would just be family, but I did ask his sister and her husband to come. He did not want them to go to all that trouble to make the trip from north Texas. But they were thrilled to come. My mother who lives here in town also joined us. I told him that I knew he did not care about this birthday party, but I was not doing it just for him... I was doing it for our kids. Each time I told this story.. whether it was to him, one of the kids or a friend, I would choke up.... I said, " listen, I am not just doing this for Daddy, I am doing it for all of you. I remember my daddy's 60th birthday, and it is a great memory that I have of him. And when your daddy is gone from this world, I want you to have this cherished memory too." So my daughter came up with the 60 gift ideas. We knew this would rock his world since he hates opening gifts. So we all laid out one gift on the coffee table. After he opened those gifts, I had kept asking him how old he was. And so I said, " how old are you?" He just gave me this puzzled look, like what have you been smokin'? I said, " I don't think that is all... you are 60... and then we walked in with a big box of gifts. He was saying, " Dee.. no.. Dee... uhuh... no... quit... no." But we were all relentless with him, and made him get with it. Pretty soon, he got into the spirit of it all. There were joke gifts.. fake look-a-like Viagra ( blue M&Ms), wipes, fleet enemas... and then some good gifts- athletic shorts, T-shirts, polo shirts, lawn chair, fishing stuff, hunting stuff, cigars, etc. We then went to the meal


Since we were not going out, I decided to do the meal like we WERE going out to a very nice restaurant. Now, this country girl has never cooked beef tenderloin. But have no fear, I have a great friend in the catering business, and she came through for me. She told me how to prepare it. I had my youngest son be the waiter. The first course was salad and bread. Then they had baked potato casserole, Italian green beans, and the beef tenderloin cooked in wine sauce with mushrooms. It was all delicious. We have dimmed lights, pretty china, candles, and flowers. I forgot to mention the appetizers before dinner- hummus dip and brie cheese with homemade blueberry sauce, and red and white wine. We finished the dinner with a Marble Slab strawberry cake. We had the Hawaiian theme mainly to just dress Hawaiian. That will be our Christmas card photo. My husband told me and then emailed everyone and told them, " This was the best birthday I ever had." I think it might be the best birthday dinner I have ever been to... but then I am quite biased... I had my family here and we all had a wonderful evening!



Family photo for the Christmas card.






This is a photo of the poster my daughter and my sister-in-law did with a tour of dh's life of 60 years.





3 comments:

eehoskin said...

Loved the recap of the party!!! I'm glad he had a good time! He'll always be 29 to me!!!

shannonmichaelis said...

Love the bday plans! What a great idea with the 60 gifts. Love the Hawaiian shirts, beef tenderloin, etc. Happy 60th to Glen!

Babs said...

We loved being included -- it was wonderful celebrating my baby brother's 60th birthday! Yes, he is still "baby brother" to me. Dee, what a great dinner!