Happy 25th Anniversary, Jacob
and Miranda!
Happy 2nd Birthday, Beth-Ann
White!
Beth-Ann’s birthday is getting mentioned
because she’s one of Zack and Leah’s future classmates and friends, and I’m
sure that Leah went to her party with the other girls their age; but my
immediate family didn’t have any involvement in her happy day.
We were much more involved in Jacob and
Miranda’s anniversary; and Michael and I skipped our band and praise team
practices so that we could help out too – as well as enjoy the celebration when
we got to those parts of the day. That
work actually started early, because Michael and I went over to his house after
Tai Chi so that we could make breakfast for his parents. Rebecca didn’t help us out with the cooking,
because she got ready for school first; and then helped us with the clean-up
after we’d had our meal and given Jacob and Miranda their gifts.
That was an amazingly fun way to start the
day, and though we – the teens – had to get to school after that; I’ll take a
wild guess that Jacob and Miranda had much more fun than we did while
continuing to celebrate, and getting to do that on a day off from the Inn. As usual, no details are required by the
kids, though that isn’t actually a guess; since Rebecca and I did overhear enough
of the girl chat tonight to know that her parents weren’t doing chores all day.
The dinner and party was at Bill and Sylvia
Bassett’s house; so Michael and I headed there after school and his aunt put us
right to work. Rebecca joined us there
too, but ended up doing kid control first – a job that we all took turns doing
over the next four or five hours. It
wasn’t warm enough to have the party outdoors, which had been plan ‘A’; so we
needed both the dining room and kitchen to have room for everyone. Using the Inn would have been an option, but
Miranda’s family had decided not to do that; knowing that the couple of honor
would not be able to keep from doing some work and supervising if they were
there.
Our dinner was a pot-luck event, and my
mother had been one of the volunteers cooking quite a variety of entrees; so
she only came over with Ethan and Ehlana once that was cooked and ready to
go. Michael and I did everything from
chopping veggies to setting tables and putting up decorations before
dinner. We were with Rebecca and the
kids for most of the social hour when the guests began arriving right up until
most of the businesses in town closed up for the day; and then dinner was
served at six-thirty.
For us, the dining experience was a bit
disjointed. Fun and entertaining too;
but a bit hectic as we switched between helping out with the work; having our
meal in the kitchen with the kids; and spending some time with Jacob, Miranda,
and the other adults for cameo moments that included the cake presentation and
gift opening. While the gifts were all
silver-themed, they ranged from the beautiful and thoughtful to the slightly
silly – like the nineteen-ninety silver dollar that one comedian in the Bassett
family gave them.
The dinner was the main entertainment
event, but since it’s also a work night; the social time after dinner was not
an all-night party. Michael, Rebecca,
and I were on the clean-up crew; we followed that up with some play time with
the kids; and then caught the tail-end of the chat time in the living room as
Bill and Sylvia’s guests started heading home.
Michael, Rebecca, and I were in the last group to leave – with our
parents; and we only went home with Jacob and Miranda long enough for Michael
and Rebecca to grab overnight bags so that they could spend the night with me.
Don’t take that last line the way I’m sure
that Tim and some of the other guys will tomorrow morning! ;^)
Giving them a kid-free night was our last
gift for Jacob and Miranda; and let’s not take that train of thought any
farther. It was going on eleven by the
time we got to my house, and we still had homework to do. Before getting to that, we took care of
getting Ethan and Ehlana off to bed; with Rebecca taking a turn with the
bedtime story before the girls and guys split up for a bit of chat time. We followed that up with a short visit with
Mom and Dad; and then decided to do our homework at the table in the lounge
instead of bothering my parents while they were trying to get some late-night
work done too.
The school work was finished by a bit after
midnight; we wound down for a while on the sofa while watching television; and
then Rebecca went to bed so that Michael and I could have a bit of alone time
before we split up and went to bed too.
Another sofa sleepover was tempting; but I had lots of work and studying
to get to still; so we settled for a minor make-out session and then Michael
went to his room to get some sleep while I got ready for bed and then started
my usual school night studying and family business job.
It’s closing in on four-thirty now thanks
to that late start; so I’ll end up using a bit of self-healing in the morning
to make up for the lack of sleep. The
late night and all of the work today was worth it for two of my very favorite
adults, though; and I’m still in a great mood – even after dealing with a
dreadfully boring archive assignment. My
language studying was more entertaining, since I spent part of that time doing
an internet chat with a couple of teens in Asia; and the family business jobs
were more fun tonight too as I worked on some projects for back-to-school and
fall retail operations.
I feel as though there should be more to
this report, since it is such a milestone for Michael’s parents; but then I did
mention a couple of times that I don’t need the details for what were likely
the very best parts of their day anyway!
If I don’t wrap this up soon, I’ll still be awake when they’re getting
ready to head for the Inn, and they’ve probably managed to get more sleep than
I will; so let’s just wrap this up and call it a night.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
