120 years. That is a long time to live. Well, it helps if you split the celebrations between two people celebrating a milestone.
On December 26, my dad turned 70.
Nearly two weeks later, on January 8, Don turned 50.
One of my 2013 resolutions was to host an open house. That didn't happen. We ended 2013 with hosting an intimate Christmas Eve dinner for 8. That went well, so we invited 25 people over for a buffet-style sit-down dinner for the birthday boys.
It has been a long time since we have had that many people over during the cold months. To add to the challenge, we left our Christmas trees up so people could enjoy them. Or was it because I was too lazy to take them down yet? Either way, it made setting up tables a bit of a challenge!
In the end, we had seating for 8 in the kitchen, 8 more in the dining room (the first room to fill up) and 7 in the family room, and tray tables in case everyone actually came. In an effort to make this as eco-friendly as possible, we took out the extra place settings we have been storing in the basement since our wedding, and used every last glass and piece of silverware in the house. Any more would have had us eating in shifts.
As I was setting the tables moments before the guests arrived (I didn't want the cats sitting on the tablecloths), it dawned on me how much one has to purchase up front in order to be eco-friendly in the long run. We ended up buying paper napkins because I didn't have nearly enough cloth ones. Other than that, there was not a lot of waste.
I made a photo album for my dad for his birthday using his birthday pictures from the past 45 birthdays (since I was a baby). You can see it HERE.
We gave Don a bobblehead made in his own image. He placed the order. I don't know the name of the company. I can tell you, they were very fun to work with. The package arrived very quickly from China. They worked with Don to make it exactly like he wanted.
The party was a great success. It was great seeing everyone at our house. It sparked our interest in doing more entertaining in 2014. Maybe this will be the year I actually host an open house. Stranger things have happened.
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