Smiling is Buddy's favourite

It was my birthday yesterday.  I turned 33.  It was a lovely day.  I came downstairs to a perfectly prepared, steaming hot cup of tea and a gift bag on the table.  Hugh bought me a great pair of heeled black ankle boots.  I thought I might want to try the next size up so in the afternoon I went shopping with a friend.  Once we got to to the shoe store (there were a few diversions along the way) just for fun I thought I'd try on a few different styles of boots.  That was a really bad idea.  Or good, depending on how you look at it.  I left the store with the boots Hugh bought me in their original size. And two more pairs of boots. I don't usually like to spend my birthday money the day I get it. There is something so delicious about having that money to spend on whatever I might care to spend it on and I usually like to savour the feeling but I was standing in the store wearing one flat black boot and one flat brown boot and agonizing about which one to get when I decided that birthday money meant it didn't have to be either/or.  It could be the genius of the and!  Thank you Mom and Jay.

We got home from shopping just in time for me to brush my teeth, change into my new ankle boots and head out for dinner with Hugh. We walked into the restaurant and I stopped dead and took a step back.  In the middle of the room was a huge long table full of people.  And I recognized....all of them?  In fact I was going to be at a Christmas party with most of them the next night and I wondered if I had gotten my dates confused.  As my mind was occupied trying to decide, my eyes were unconsciously taking in the chair draped with a white feather boa and a cluster of balloons and a pile of presents in the middle of the table.  My mind felt very slow as it raced around trying to figure out what was going on and then the table full of people I recognized starting singing.  To me.  And I realized I had walked right into my own surprise party and all those people were there for me.  And then I burst into tears. 

December birthdays can be hard.  How do you ask people to add one more thing to their to-do list at an incredibly busy time of year?  How do you even find a date to get together?  I think the the last birthday party I had was the year I turned 16.  Or maybe it was 14 or 15?  I can't remember exactly.  What I do remember is Disney's "Beauty and The Beast" had just come out on VHS and it was a really big deal that we could rent it for my birthday.  Before watching the movie we went sledding at the elementary school and one of my friends wrapped herself around the steel base of the swings and ended up with a broken tailbone though it wasn't discovered until the next day.  Can you believe she managed to walk back to my house and sit through the movie?  I'm telling you Beauty and The Beast was a big deal!  That was definitely a memorable birthday.  As was my 30th when we met up with my best friend and her husband in Calgary for the weekend.  Such a perfect way to celebrate that milestone.  And now I can add another one to the list of memorable birthdays.  Walking into that restaurant last night, seeing everyone sitting there, knowing they had all shown up for me (my friend Tabitha actually switched a nursing shift so she could be there) at this crazy, busy, expensive time of year?  I will never forget that feeling as long as I live.

Now before you go and give Hugh a pat on the back for his awesomeness, and I know you want to, I need to give credit where credit is due.  The surprise party wasn't actually Hugh's idea, it was my friend Rebecca's, who I did all my Christmas baking with.  During the course of that weekend my birthday plans came up and I told her Hugh and I would probably just go for dinner, that December birthdays were tricky which was why I hadn't had a party in so many years.  She told me last night she decided that was just not okay so she got on the phone to another friend then asked Hugh what he had planned and then told him about the surprise party idea which, again, giving credit where credit is due, Hugh was all for.  Rebecca's husband said at dinner, "You knew right?  You had to have known."  Are you kidding?  Once I stopped crying it took me a good hour to stop shaking from the shock!  My friend, Mir, who I had been shoe shopping with that afternoon and who had dropped me off at home on her way to a friend's for dinner said, "I told everyone if you cry when you come in you didn't know."  Rebecca said, "You looked like you didn't recognize anybody when you walked in the door."  I absolutely did.  I just couldn't figure out why they were all there! 

When you don't live near your family you have to create one.  There were 18 of us around the table last night and as I looked at each face I felt so grateful to God for giving me this amazing family.  If you were there last night and you read this, thank you, thank you, thank you.  After dinner most of us went back to Marc and Rebecca's and at the end of the night my cheeks were aching from laughing and I had laugh/cried all my make-up off.  I fell asleep last night with a very full heart, waking up every few hours to pinch myself and make sure I hadn't dreamed it all.  I can now say with good authority, SURPRISE PARTIES ARE MY FAVOURITE