It Was A Golden Evening...

For many weeks now I had been working and planning, with the help of many key people, a Surprise 50th Anniversary Party for my parents who were so deserving of such an event. I would've loved to have blogged about it on the way but obviously that just wasn't possible! Planning and scheming while living under the same roof proved to have its own difficulties. I had to wait until both of them were out of the house before I could continue my scheming. First order of business was to contact my Aunt and Uncle in California and let them know about the party in hopes that they would be able to make it. It was a couple weeks of sitting on edge before getting the email letting me know that they would be able to come. I knew their being there would be icing on the entire cake. When my folks were out of the house I was either on the computer, the phone, texting or turning the house inside out looking for their original wedding items that I could have "showcased" at the party. I knew where my Moms wedding dress was, that was an easy one. It was hanging in her closet at the very end and she would never know it was missing. Along with her wedding dress was the petticoat she wore. I was safe knowing she would never know they were gone. I moved them to my bedroom and they hung on the back of my door for a good week, she never knew it was there! Finding her veil took a little work. After turning their closet inside out I decided to hit up the closet in my Dads study. Bingo! There I found her veil, a box of napkins from their wedding and the antique vintage bloomers that were originally worn by my great-grandmother but also worn by my Mom on her Big Day. I didn't really care about embarrassing her, these were cool things! I scoured through boxes of photos looking for their wedding photos and found them in the 5th box I went through. Along with their wedding pictures was one of their wedding invitations. Big score. It was going to be a grand night. The story was all planned. I was taking them to dinner and we would need to stop by Sidney and Gus's house to pick something up before going on to the restaurant. Even when we pulled up and saw all the cars they hadn't a clue. I was so worried throughout the planning they would know I was up to something. Certainly when we pulled up I would be found out. It wasn't until we got them into the house that they realized it was a party for them and in their honor...

The flowers were gifted by Aunt Betty and were gorgeous and perfect for the evening. I received this particular picture via text from Sidney when they arrived. Saturday afternoon I was a nervous wreck and was worried about details and things arriving, people arriving and specifically, my Aunt and Uncle arriving from California in time before we got there. I was in touch with Rachel who works for the bakery who did the cake and she was delivering it. I was so worried about all the little details but everything worked out perfectly. The cake arrived and was beautiful....

Here is another pic I took of the cake with the party favors in the glass bowl next to the cake. The favors were gold organza bags filled with Hershey Kisses and butter cream mints...

The serving set was lent to us by Sidney and Gus and was the set they used at their wedding reception. My Moms dress was displayed beautifully....

Sidney did an amazing job arranging my Moms veil and showcasing the photos and their wedding invitation. Along with Moms veil, I had discovered her gloves she wore and the lace hanky she carried too...

Next to this were photos of the young couple....

And on the other side was their wedding invitation....

The guests of honor were all smiles the entire evening. In fact, I cant remember the last time I saw my Mom smile quite so much...

A fabulous pic of Lori and my Mom...

They kept saying throughout the night that they couldn't believe its been 50 years and wondered where the time had gone. I think that's a good sign...

And a classic pic of my Dad talking to my Aunt Beverly...

One of the things my Aunt and Uncle gave my folks were two of their original wedding pics framed and with the color all 'remastered' so to speak. My Uncle is very good at remastering the color of old photos. These are pics of the pictures....

Aren't they wonderful! There are many more pics that were taken that I don't have yet. Sidney took a bunch with her camera and I will post those when I get them. All in all, it was fabulous. Mom cried. It was grand. It was perfect. I could not have pulled it off without the help of Sidney and Gus, Ariane, Rachel, Betty, and my Aunt and Uncle from California who were the icing on the cake. It was a good night.

Yesterday, I went total gangbusters on my knitting and made some mad progress...now I know for sure that it'll be done for Christmas. Here are the mitts....

These will be done in no time....then I can wrap them up. And the progress on Dads sock? Check this out...

I'm only 10 rounds from starting the toe decreases! When I said I went gangbusters I wasn't kidding. . It's nice to know for sure these things will be done for Christmas. I still need to block Betty's shawl but I'm in blocking mode right now. I've got a scarf soaking right now that I am blocking for Melanie. Then its on to Betty's shawl. I cant wait to take the final pics of her shawl on Lucy. She'll be awesome!

I hope you are all enjoying your time with your family this Holiday Season. Family is where its at!