Surprise!

Surprise parties are the best kind. On Saturday my family pulled off a fantastic surprise birthday party for my grandfather who is 80 years old today. I was sure I'd be the one to accidentally tell him about the whole thing - I've had to keep it quiet for months that Mom, Dad, Blake, and Lianne were coming into town.

We reserved a room at The Hermitage House Smorgasbord, his favorite restaurant. We arranged for a friend of his to plan a birthday lunch date so that we could be sure he would be in town for the weekend and at the right place at the right time on Saturday. When G-dad arrived, my aunt and I met him in the lobby and asked if we could join him and his friend for a birthday lunch. He said, "Well how'd you know we were going to be here?" Then we opened the doors to our room to reveal the crowd of people waiting for him. He was COMPLETELY surprised, so much so that for a second I was worried about TOO MUCH surprise, considering he is turning 80.

Dad, as the oldest son and the kid with a public speaking job, presided over the day. After lunch and cake, Dad gave a touching speech about G-dad's influence on his life and his examples of family and faith. Other speeches followed - including one about the whipping he got in the second grade for not knowing his 6-multiplication table. After the party, the kids and grandkids went to his house to open his present: a snazzy new television and a VCR/DVD player. This replaces the television he has had since they started making televisions and the VCR that doesn't work anymore. When we hooked up his new tv, we discovered he has had cable for the past two years and hadn't known it. His old tv wasn't cable-ready. The Fox News logo will be permanently burned into the corner of that tv in no time.

It was a wonderful weekend with the whole fam. I especially enjoyed the extra time I had with my parents and sis (and bro-in-law too). Dad told G-dad to mark his calendar for a surprise birthday party on his 90th.