Sunday

Sunday was a very interesting day. Mike's brother Bob and his wife Jackie just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on the 28th of last month and their daughter put together a small, informal get-together for them. It was to be a surprise, so those that had early service at their churches attended it and came to Bob's house afterwards. Jessica opened the house, decorated, set up the lunch, and everyone gathered in anticipation of Bob and Jackie's arrival from the later service (they almost attended early service causing great anxiety but that's a different story).

We waited and paced........paced and waited........turns out that someone wanted to talk to Bob about the kidney he'd donated in March and then they decided they needed to stop by the store for a few items. As Jessica said, it's hard to call someone and tell them they're holding up the party that they know nothing about!

They finally arrived and were quite surprised. We didn't leap out at them and yell or anything primarily because our cars were parked at the curb. No one wanted to park a block and a half away and walk to the house. So they figured something was up when they saw all our cars and, being the intelligent people they are, figured it was something along the lines of an anniversary party.

Then came the surprise for Mike and I. Everyone else (excluding Bob and Jackie who knew absolutely nothing) knew it was a double celebration in honor of both Bob and Jackie AND of Mike and me! NOW who's surprised?! What a nice bunch of people!

(That's our nephew behind us)

You see, when our anniversary came in November, our kids didn't plan any celebration for us in spite of the pressure applied by Mike's parents. This didn't bother Mike or me at all. I don't know about Mike but if there was some big to-do for us, it would have painfully reminded me of the gap left by the loss of our Melissa. Knowing her love of all things celebratory, she would have had something planned in detail months in advance. So it was a perfect celebration for Mike and I to take a week's quiet, leisurely tour up the Oregon coast. We never thought we'd missed out on anything and the thought never crossed our minds to be envious of Bob and Jackie or to feel sorry for ourselves. What a lovely bunch of people to include us!

(I tried to flip this pic but couldn't figure out how. It was right when I uploaded it.)

I was so oblivious to looks, comments, and whispers that when Lela asked me to help bring in the cake, I trotted along after her. There were two boxes and I STILL didn't pick up on anything. I just thought that they needed two cakes because they were small and there were a couple dozen people. Didn't occur to me that they'd get one bigger cake instead of two smaller ones. I was about to set the box on the counter when I heard Mike behind me say, "Dear, I think we've been Shanghaied." He had to say that a couple times before it sank into my admittedly thick skull just WHY there were two cakes. Some people are so oblivious!

(Richelle showing the aging parents the controls)

Ray and Lela gave each couple a beautiful wood and crystal music box that plays 16 full songs for each of the three settings of "bells", "piano", and "organ" for a total of 48 full songs. We were also given a double picture frame to hold 5x7 "then and now" pictures. And, of course, congratulatory cards. What a sweet bunch of people!


(Is this pretty or what?)

So that was an amazing Sunday afternoon. I left feeling like a queen!