Mom and Dad's 5oth

Jon and I recently traveled to Dallas for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. My sisters and I were able to give them a really fun shin-dig. It was not a surprise because my Dad doesn't do well with surprises in fact we were all afraid we would receive a whuppin' from our Dad for giving the party. Seriously we were afraid how he would handle the whole thing. My Dad isn't exactly Mr. Social. I'll share later how he handled it.

My sisters, Wendy and Marsha and our Mom, we couldn't keep my mother out of the church kitchen, made all kinds of beautiful trays of sandwiches, vegetables and fruit. The food table was set beautifully. God blessed us through Marsha having so many clear serving trays and pedestals we could use from her work (DELVE Dallas) We had a wedding cake and punch and of course being in Texas you always have to have some Ice Tea, Sweet Tea to be exact. Reminds me of the time I caught my mom putting it (Sweet Tea) in Chad's bottle. Back to the affair. We had fresh flower arrangements on all the tables, very simply done but effective. God blessed us with Wendy being at the right place at the right time. The store was getting ready to cut the flower prices by 75% so they could have room for the new truck load coming in that day. We had burned a CD of my Mom and Dad's favorite music from when they were dating. We had: "You Are My Special Angel," "Have I Told You How Much I Love You," "Earth Angel," "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," and many more. Some great dancing songs but since we were having it in the basement of the church we could not dance. I was blessed by just taking all the change we had around the house and having just enough to download all their favorites and a few more for a total of 24. It excited us for Mom to be so excited about the CD that she made sure she was the one that got to keep it and put it in Dad's truck for them to listen to it together. Jack (Wendy's husband) was blessed by putting all our pictures together for a slide show. It was so much fun for everyone to enjoy all the pictures of my parents from babies to young marrieds on the slide show that ran continuously. We (Wendy, Jack, Lil' Jack, Billy, Jon and myself) all shared about what my parents had meant to each of us. Grant and Anneen were able to send a video clip of congratulations as well as Clay, Ava, and Sarah sang "We Wish You a Happy Anniversary."

So how did my parents like it? Mom loved it she had a ball. My Dad? Harder to tell with him. Like I said were were afraid of getting a whuppin when we got home. But while Wendy and I were giving our speeches he had his head down, he couldn't look up. But when the program was over and everyone was just socializing I saw him smiling many times. When all the Church people had left he danced with my Mom. I think that was my favorite part of the whole afternoon.

Miracles do happen. My parents are overcommers! They stand as a great example to me to remember my vows and keep them no matter what and that should be celebrated. Celebrate we did