A birthday picks up the spirits
The one person I will never need in my life is an event planner.
One thing I have learned over the years is how to throw a great birthday party and the principles apply to most celebrations through the year.
Starting with the guest list, I invite everybody. I figure if half my family shows up, it will be a party.
My family is predominantly girls and they seem to naturally gravitate to banners and balloons.
I provide lots of fresh flowers (hyacinth and hydrangeas) and my place is good to go.
The recent party was to celebrate my son-in-law’s 60th birthday. A 60-year-old son-in-law is indeed cause for celebration and if you could pick the ideal guy, it would be Steve.
He has every quality you could ask for — dependable, reliable and kind. To complement his good looks, I went all out at a men’s shop on Bernard to buy him a collection of new shirts for spring.
Mike gave him a great book titled ““2,534 World’s Greatest Witticisms.”” His daughters painted gift pictures and crafted birthday cards.
My menu planning really paid off. When the family arrived from Vancouver, I had dinner ready and all the meals were covered for their brief spring break visit.
I baked cornbread from scratch to go with ribs and my apple pie demonstrated that an old girl can always remember how to roll out the perfect crust.
Second night, Mike grilled citrus salmon and we baked a white vanilla cake to decorate with sparklers and a token candle or two.
My frosting is simply whipped cream with cream cheese and fresh fruit (strawberries and blueberries) make a nice topping.
All the activities I planned worked to perfection. The H2O centre is always on the list because we love water sports of all kinds.
The visit to the Haley farm to see the new lambs is a family tradition. I did not know a black sheep can produce a white lamb. The newborn lamb we saw had the biggest, pinkest ears ever.
A farm in spring is as near to heaven as we mortals get. The sense of peace and the sights of soft earth are idyllic.
When we arrived home, we discovered a neighbour had left hot cross buns on our door. How wonderful was that?
Spring weather can be unpredictable, so we planned a bowling tournament and guess who won? My ball would simply not go in the gutter.
Our last evening together, we played a game called Left Right Centre. Left Right Centre is played with poker chips and is easy and fun. Highly recommended for the next time you have grandchildren over.
We all gathered around the piano for a Happy Birthday Steve production.
Mike did his Betty Bought A Bit of Butter tongue twister. The granddaughters sang A Wonderful World and I played Summertime. There were original riddles, jokes and a big finish with everyone singing Take Me Out To The Ballgame.
No more singing the blues for me. No more ““life is hard, then you die”” for me.
Several friends were home from the hospital last week, one from rehab who had had an especially difficult time, and for her recovery I am truly grateful.
Now it is spring and all the Canadians are coming home from Mexico and we old folks feel like dancing in the streets.
So nice to feel the old body coming to life after all the antibiotics required to fight the flu and here comes Easter. Easter holds the promise of renewal. There will be more and even bigger parties to celebrate in the future and the fresh fruit pies this summer will taste better than ever.
Jeanette Dunagan has lived in Kelowna for more than 40 years. Email her at jd2399@telus.net.