The comforts you defend
For my mother's birthday observed, my father organized her a surprise party. It went beautifully. She knew to expect my father's youngest brother and his wife and maybe me and ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spatch; she was not expecting eighteen friends and family and enough food to feed several small armies, seriously, Redwall levels of provender, which my father had been secretly preparing in a friend's kitchen all week. The cake would have maybe had a firmer grasp on structural integrity had it been composed of only four layers of meringue, whipped cream, and strawberries instead of five, but it slid sideways so majestically after the first two slices were taken out—and was eaten just as delightedly whether in slices or scoops—it was worth it in performance art. People gave her scarves, sculptures, cards, books; my father had scanned pictures out of photo albums and printed them out to decorate the house. He had promised not to let my mother host her own party and although it took a little enforcement, I actually saw her sitting down and eating and talking with my godmother and some of her grad school friends. Guests helped heroically with the dishes. My niece hugged her Fox-cousin goodbye so hard at the end of the night, she lifted him off his feet. My mother's actual birthday is Monday and I think the plan is to just make her waffles.
spatch; she was not expecting eighteen friends and family and enough food to feed several small armies, seriously, Redwall levels of provender, which my father had been secretly preparing in a friend's kitchen all week. The cake would have maybe had a firmer grasp on structural integrity had it been composed of only four layers of meringue, whipped cream, and strawberries instead of five, but it slid sideways so majestically after the first two slices were taken out—and was eaten just as delightedly whether in slices or scoops—it was worth it in performance art. People gave her scarves, sculptures, cards, books; my father had scanned pictures out of photo albums and printed them out to decorate the house. He had promised not to let my mother host her own party and although it took a little enforcement, I actually saw her sitting down and eating and talking with my godmother and some of her grad school friends. Guests helped heroically with the dishes. My niece hugged her Fox-cousin goodbye so hard at the end of the night, she lifted him off his feet. My mother's actual birthday is Monday and I think the plan is to just make her waffles.
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Nine
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It looked like people were enjoying themselves! They talked with each other. They talked with my mother. And nobody let her do the dishes.
Fox fell in love with his pinky-red balloon, especially when a passing light illuminated its globe ("I can see through her"), and clearly felt this as a very great occasion, as he wished me "Happy Holidays."
Aw! That would be the context in which he has the most experience of parties at my parents' house.
Are you the person who taught him Offenbach's "Galop infernal"? At one point he careened chaotically through the living room to its semi-shouted accompaniment ("Na-na-na-na-na-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA") which felt appropriate.
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Well, I've certainly played it for him, maybe half-a-dozen times at long intervals over the last year, so he has a fine musical memory. I tend to break it out when he's in that state of joyous rampage, most vividly once in the bathtub, while he can-canned his bubbles into meringue.
Nine
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I think you have succeeded in forming a permanent soundtrack.
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Did I ever tell you I once danced the cancan for DWJ? I was playing forfeits with her granddaughters, and lost.
Nine
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Nine
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My father is not normally the person who organizes parties in our family, but he rose to the occasion. (The cake slumped to it.)
Happy birthday to your mother!
I shall tell her so!
(I like your icon.)
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I am picturing this, along with an appropriate musical sting.
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Slide whistle or trombone?
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It sounds magnificent and it was extremely clever to cook the food somewhere else.
Also the gifts sound enjoyable for someone of her tastes although that’s not going to stop me leaving the usual grain and honey &c, because I don’t think sculpture has been propitiatory in the global imagination for the last thousand years or so.
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I will tell her!
It sounds magnificent and it was extremely clever to cook the food somewhere else.
I was so impressed. He organized everyone's arrival and the last of the in-house prep for the two hours my mother had my niece at skating (did I tell you my niece has started skating? She really likes skating. She and N can zoom around on the ice together). She came home to the small surprise of me and
Also the gifts sound enjoyable for someone of her tastes although that’s not going to stop me leaving the usual grain and honey &c, because I don’t think sculpture has been propitiatory in the global imagination for the last thousand years or so.
Far be it from me to stop you. I also like when the plants come back in the spring.
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I'm so happy it came off. It was probably the best gift my father could have given her.
And the cake sounds Pisa-esque in the best possible way.
We did make the allusion!
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My mother loved it. I told my father he did good.
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It really was. I am sorry I cannot share the cake! I don't think it could be safely scaled up without risking something like the end of the 1984 Ghostbusters.
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P.
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He asked me and my brother to suggest dishes she would like (and dishes we could feed to a population with a wide range of preferences and intolerances) and then he just made them. He's an extremely good cook. I was lucky enough to learn from both of my parents.
Some people's relatives.
*hugs*
(Maybe you can research the reorganization before the next party.)
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Aw, that's great! I'm glad it went so well!
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Thank you!
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It was! And I will pass your wishes on.
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I'll tell her! Honestly, it was awesome.
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Years ago we had an "excuse to make cake" party. One of the things we made was red velvet cupcakes in a rose-shaped cupcake pan. We were going to put them on skewers in a vase to serve. But the cupcakes wouldn't come out if the pan - they were stuck. It was close-ish to Valentine's Day, so instead we put up a sign saying "destroy a rose for Valentine's Day!" Sometimes the unexpected makes it all the more fun. :)
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Thank you. It was!
- they were stuck. It was close-ish to Valentine's Day, so instead we put up a sign saying "destroy a rose for Valentine's Day!"
That is excellent.
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I will tell her you say so!