My Parent's 65th, and I'm Stuck Home With The Dogs

Kiwi Daisy Fruit Bouquet

Yesterday was my parents' 65th Wedding Anniversary!  No way I could make it to Cape Coral, Florida or leave my pack at home alone all day for a week.  The rest of the 28 kids, grandkids and great grandkids, who are scattered all over the place (see list below), couldn't go either except for my brother Londo who lives in Tampa, his son Mac and Mac's daughter, Angela (both in from Washington State), who all took them out to lunch.  Carole helped me contact everybody, and all pitched in together to send a huge floral centerpiece with 2 tapers, a Kiwi Daisy Fruit Bouquet, and a dozen chocolate covered strawberries made to look like long stem roses in a box, which Carole ordered online from Edible Arrangements. Various family members spent time on the phone with them and comparing notes with each other.  It was a festive and exciting day.  And appropriately expensive!

Floral Bouquet, which smelled good.

The strawberry roses, in a long stem roses box.

I also scribbled out a little essay , just thoughts that I unfortunately didn't have time to refine or turn into a poem by the due date, and printed it up on specialty paper, entitled

Marble Plaque

Madeleine et Lou! Les Chefs Francaise/Americanne!
Reflections on 65 Years of Marriage

I rolled it into a scroll and mailed it to them in a box with a card signed with the names of all 28 of us, a pearl bracelet for Mom, and a white marble plaque which reads: 

"Family, because two people fell in love."

Mom is wearing her pearl bracelet. The green bouquet of
Chocolate Covered Strawberries is what came in the long red box.

Eating FRENCH fries on their 65th!  How appropriate, for a FRENCH war bride!
Dad, Mom, Mac and Angela.  Londo is taking the picture.

Londo, Mom &; Dad

All this together was a feat of coordination over several days, all arrived on time, and it had the desired effect of overwhelming them. They have called several times already to say thank you and recite each and every gift.

Lon brought a cake.

Here are the 28 names that were signed on the cards:

Kids:
Londo & Linda
Dave & Carole
Michele & John



Grandkids:
Melynda, Jennifer, Heather
Scott, Mac
Anne, Margo, Ryan
Nathan

Great Grandkids:
John, Marie, Jordon, Jimmy, Angela, Amanda, Blake, Laura, Kelsey, Caitlin, Kristin, Dylan, Jonathan

I was chastised for not including the names of the great great grandkids, but I simply don't know who they all are or how many.  If I have misspelled someone's name or you would like me to correct this list, write to me at msfry@pmnotary.com

P.S.  8/1/2010 Yesterday, Londo's photos of the occasion arrived.  So today I was finally able to illustrate this little memoir and send it around to everyone.