It's About Time

At last the lying can cease. I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. The big 'ol secret we have been keeping for months was Tarzan's mother's SURPRISE 60th birthday party. And the dear woman reads our blogs, so neither I nor Rocketgirl nor Pfiddle could mention anything about it. Last year about this time, Tarzan needed his birth certificate for some work thing when I pulled it out I realized it had his mother's birth date on it. This is the first time in nearly ten years that I had any inclination of when her birthday was or how old she was. She is SO closemouthed about it. And as luck would have it, this year, that is 2008, would be her 60th birthday. What better reason to have a party? And as long as we were at it, why not make it a surprise party? That way she couldn't push the focus off on someone else and escape the attention, as she is wont to do. (Tarzan says she never let them celebrate her birthday when they were kids.) I asked MusicMan - Tarzan's father - what he thought of the idea and she said "oh, be careful, she doesn't do well with surprises." Taking that as a warning, when all the siblings came for the ASKR in June, I broached the subject to them and we formed a plan. It was evil in both its genius and its simplicity. We would come to The Rockies while they were in Paradise and surprise her on their return.
As the planning progressed - and when their plane tickets were finalized - we decided to come to The Rockies early, spend Thanksgiving with QC and prepare for the surprise. This turned out to be a good idea. Especially when we decided to expand the party to all of Gamma's friends from the community. But if my post on Thanksgiving was a little vague or brief, it was because we were all here, in The Rockies, but I couldn't SAY so and chance her reading about us being together, as we had gone to great lengths to tell her we were elsewhere for the holiday.
What the whole production became was actually two surprises. One, first thing this morning, was only the family. They were fresh off a plane, not dressed for a party and been up all night, flying across half the ocean. So we met her with flowers and let her absorb the shock. This afternoon, since everyone was here, MusicMan had scheduled a family picture session and with the help of the sweet neighbor across the way, we let in the friends and other neighbors, set up the food and cake and surprised her again when we came home from the photo shoot. Visiting, eating, a gorgeous memeory book from the same dear friend across the road and Rocketgirl made a movie of her mother's life. There wasn't a dry eye in the place.
AND I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO BLOG ABOUT ANY OF THE PLANS FOR MONTHS! It was SOOO frustrating, not just the trying to remember what lies we've told and misdirection we've planted, and I think it nearly killed Rocketgirl. This is her mother after all. But in the end, when all of the grandchildren came running with the flowers as she walked in the door, and we whispered "SURPRISE" it was worth it. You be the judge:There are a ton more pictures which I may post another day - we're flying back to The Jungle tomorrow - and I am sure Rocketgirl will post her groovy montage for us to view, but for now, that is the money shot.

HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY GAMMA!!

This is me, glad to not be holding it in anymore.