Secret 70th

(I absolutely hate these photos of myself, so I took them down. I seriously have no idea how daily style bloggers cope, because no matter how much time I allow myself for getting ready, I always end up running around at the last minute with a pair of laddered tights in one hand and a lipstick in the other. Then I’ll try to put the lipstick on my legs and the tights on my face or something. Add in the fact that this month I’ve also had to allow time to take a handful of badly-lit photos and, well, this is what you end up with. Daily style bloggers, I salute you.)

So! Yesterday was a day Terry and I had been anticipating almost as much as Christmas itself, or perhaps more, actually, given the planning that went into it: Terry’s mum’s surprise 70th birthday party, which I totally failed to take any photos of, because I am so full of fail this week. I actually had the camera on the table in front of me all night, and every so often I’d pick it up and examine it like it was some kind of foreign object, the likes of which I’d never seen before. Then I’d put it back down and continue ignoring it. In the end, I forgot to capture so many important moments of the evening that I figured I’d just focus on enjoying the evening instead, and rely on the many video cameras in the room to capture it all for posterity.

Terry’s mum’s birthday isn’t actually until the first week in January, but because everyone was going to be back at work/school by then, it was a little too difficult to arrange for that day, so we decided to have the party yesterday, when most people were still off work, and it was easier for Terry’s brothers to make it to Scotland for the event. Terry had been planning the whole thing for weeks: he’d booked a venue, arranged food, etc, and had planned to basically make it a “This Is Your Life” style surprise for his mum, who thought she was going to the theatre, but was met instead by a room full of people doing the full-on “SURPRISE!” *jazz hands* kinda thing. She was pretty shocked. There may have been tears. They may not all have been hers. Thank God I wear waterproof mascara is all I can say…

The biggest surprises were still to come, though. Terry started off his “welcome, one and all” speech, and mentioned that there were some people who unfortunately couldn’t make it, namely his brother George and his wife, who live in Athens, and his other brother, Niko, with his wife and family, who’re in the south of England. At that point he cut to a “Sorry we couldn’t be there” video which George had recorded in advance, to get their mum good and disappointed before George and Georgia appeared in person and almost gave her a heart attack.

That done, Terry told his mum that all of the surprises had now been had, and that Niko, Rachel etc definitely weren’t coming. Then he went back to his presentation, and a “waitress” came into the room to start serving water to people. But! This was no “waitress”! It was, in fact, my sister-in-law Rachel, who reached Terry’s mum and offered her some water. “No thanks,” said Terry’s mum politely, before doing the biggest double-take I’ve ever seen, and then jumping up to hug Rachel, and then Niko and their son Jonathan, who’d snuck out of their hiding place by that time. More tears were shed, and then Terry did a little speech he’d prepared, which led to even MORE tears. So, basically, we invited lots of people out last night in order to make them cry. You’re welcome, everyone!

Anyway, it was a great night, and Terry’s mum was completely amazed by everything, which was, of course, the whole point. Oh, and I did remember to take a photo of one thing:

The cake! Isn’t it amazing? Here’s a better photo of the top:

(Terry’s mum sews a lot, needless to say.) This was made for us by Siobhan at Caketasia, who did an absolutely amazing job, and I can confirm that it tasted every bit as good as it looked, although it seemed a terrible shame to cut into such a lovely thing. (We did, though, and it was worth it.)

So, that was last night: because we have lots of family here and have been so busy with this, and the various other things we have on this month (it’s a complete social whirl, I’m telling you) we’re still not officially back at work yet, and all of my blogs except this one are still running automated posts which I wrote in November or something. I’m SO going to need another holiday when this month is over.

In other news, I introduced myself to someone yesterday with the words, “Hi, I’m Amber’s wife, Terry.” I am awesome.