Blessed

There was a moment yesterday.  Nothing special was happening.  We had finished dinner and were eating cake and I looked down the long table at all these people I love so much and thought how much Walt and I are blessed to have them all in our lives...and then had a bit of a tear when I looked at the portraits of Paul and Dave on the wall behind them and wished they were here to share the joy and the love.

We could not possibly have had a better, or more fun, or more joyous, or loving anniversary celebration.  Ned and Marta arrived around 11 to finish cleaning house (it will take me months before I find everything again!!)  Walt went to the train station to pick up Jeri and Phil, who were exhausted from taking the red eye from Boston and getting very little sleep, so they headed upstairs to take a nap so they could be in party mode.

Char arrived, Norm (Walt's brother) and Olivia arrived, Jeri and Phil (when they woke up) picked my mother up, and Tom et al. eventually arrived.  We sat around visiting.

Polly was a pain in the butt most of the day and actually bit Lacie in the hand (which I didn't realize until this morning, after they'd left; I knew Lacie hurt her hand, but didn't realize it was because of Polly)

Bri had brought a box of art work and her "portfolio" from her week in an art class and described things to each person, in turn.

Ned achieved the goal he wanted to achieve...he climbed the tree in our front yard with Bri.  (It reminded me of when my father waited for so long to be able to take little Jeri to the Swensons Ice Cream store near our house and buy her an ice cream cone)

Meanwhile Uncle Norm worked a puzzle with Lacie, who loves puzzles

We continued to visit while Tom and Ned prepared our "surf and turf" dinner.  Ned made a tri-tip roast

 

while Marta and Lacie worked on reading, writing, and drawing.

And Tom took care of the "surf"...

Of course there was cake

After dinner everyone made a toast (each of which ended with a cheer)

And then, because this is a musical family, the evening could not end without music and dancing.

Tom and Laurel had brought a dog, Bandit, for whom they are dog-sitting, with them and things were kind of rocky among the four dogs at the end of the day, so rather than write this journal entry last night, I went to sleep in my recliner, where I could play referee, if necessary, but all four settled down right away and slept all night.

I could not possibly have asked for a better way to celebrate our anniversary, except if we could have somehow had David and Paul here with us.

Thanks EVERYBODY who made it such a special day!!!

50

We went out for a wonderful anniversary dinner last night, at a little restaurant called Osterio Fasula, kind of hidden away in far West Davis.  It could not have been a better meal.  We started with asparagus salad (for Walt) and aspragus soup (for me).  It was kind of a green dinner.

That was followed by a fabulous gnocci pesto.

We sat and chatted about memories of our 50 years, and how the world had changed since we were first married. 

Our waitress was wonderful, chatty, and when dinner was over, she gave us samples of their house made ...cello. She said it was like lemoncello, but they make it with seasonal fruits grown on the grounds.  Tonight's was kiwicello and it was delicious.

And then, because it was our anniversary, she fixed us a special crepe to share.  It had a berry cream with a berry coulis and a mound of whipped cream. The perfect end, nice and light but not too much.

While we were out having this delicious dinner, Ned and Marta were at our house cleaning.  Ned is determined to give me half of what I always ask for -- world peace and a clean house.  He came Thursday night, descending like the White Tornado, saying he was going to be "ruthless," determined to make this a beautiful house in time for today's family gathering.  And he did.  He ran up and downstairs with boxes, and, with Walt's help, dusted, vacuumed and did everything he could to transform the place.

At the end of the day, it was clear that the job had not been finished, so he returned with Marta and they worked for several hours.  He will be back this morning to do the final moving of furniture so that we can all visit together in the living room, and seat 14 people for the surf and turf dinner he and Tom are preparing.  I am humbled by all this work and so grateful to Ned and Marta for all their work

Jeri and Phil will be here around noon; they flew into Oakland last night and are taking the train to Davis.

This has been (so far) a wonderful, loving 50th anniversary and it will only get better later today.