Planning and bringing off Kris surprise 40th birthday party brought back lots of happy memories for me. I LOVE giving surprise birthday and other types of parties. Planned my VERY FIRST surprise birthday party for my mom in February of 1947, when I was almost ten. Her birth day is just two weeks before mine, and she had just celebrated her 20th birthday when I was born, so this was her 30th birthday. I invited two aunts who lived near us, and their two children, and I bought a small cake, using my babysitting money to do so. It was a surprise for my mom. I planned my NEXT surprise party for my boyfriend from high school. His 18th birthday. We held the party at Milwaukees Lake Park Pavilion, when that pavilion was still accessible to ALL of the citizens of Milwaukee, rather than just the wealthy few. He, too, was greatly surprised. A year later, in December 1957, I planned a surprise birthday party for my sister Barb for her 18th birthday. A hayride and chili supper at a wonderful stable just north of Whitnall Park that does not exist any longer. Lots of fun, and a real surprise for her. The NEXT surprise party is one friends planned for me, for my 30th birthday when I was living and working at St. Elizabeth Parish in Milwaukee. Some of these folks are still good friends these 47 years later. What a blessing. A few years later, some months after Dan and I were married, HE planned the most amazing birthday surprise possible; February 1973, after a wonderful dinner, we returned home to a darkened home. Nothing surprising about that. Until I opened the door and discovered a house full of family and friends all shouting surprise for my birthday. I really was! A few years after that, I planned another surprise birthday for my mom, again at our home, this one her 50th, with some very special friends joining us for the celebration. Birthdays for our kids through toddlerhood and grade school years were usually planned with their knowledge; they had some input into the guest list, usually held in our living room and yard. THAT was for most of their parties. EACH ONE also had some special surprise parties. For our son Francis Di Domizios 14th birthday, Dan and I decorated our basement and planned a 14th birthday surprise, inviting his classmates and other friends. We scheduled it on Valentines Day, a week before his birthday, to add to the surprise. And he was. Fun to watch. For our son Michael Will Di Domizios 18th birthday, we invited his teachers, some classmates, and folks from his birth family -- his birth father and his wife, his birth mother, and his two sisters, surprising him greatly. Mike had lived with us for three years as a foster son before asking that we adopt him, so he had frequent contact with his birth family all of the years that he lived with us. For our son Ernie DiDomizio, whose birthday is in August, we invited family, classmates, and other friends to join us at a park for his surprise 18th birthday party. He is still best friends with a whole bunch of those folks. Since we were usually traveling at the time before, during, and after his birthday, other folks planned all sorts of ways to celebrate his birthday along the way. I am certain that Kris 15 days surpasses any of Ernies multiple birthday celebrations. For our son Randolph Didomizio, we surprised him as part of a joint birthday celebration -- my moms 70th birthday and Randys 20th birthday. My moms 70th was special in ways that touch my heart, mainly because of some very special people who joined us for this celebration -- her 90 year old dad, Joseph Ball, and two of her sisters, Ruth Ball Jacobsen Luethi, and Betty Reuter, as well as some of her nieces and nephews. My Aunt Betty, who worked as a baker for decades, made the best birthday cake, as well as mini eclairs, mini-cream puffs, and the absolutely very best brownies that I have ever eaten! (Thank you, Aunt Betty). There were other surprise birthday parties over the decades. Two were planned for my Aunt Lillian Haessly, her 90th and her 100th. In truth, she knew about the parties. She just did not know all of the details of these parties. Both lasted three days, which surprised her. 150 people -- family and life-long friends, and a few newer friends. Most of us stayed in a hotel near Milwaukees airport from Friday through Sunday, so we had a surprise dinner with folks who arrived early on Friday evening, followed by a Mass and the party on Saturday, and an unexpected brunch on Sunday morning with folks who were still around. Both of these celebrations, ten years apart, brought together her sisters and their children, a brother and his wife and their children, and a whole host of nieces, nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews, and for both of these two parties, a brand new great great baby, both children of my niece Amy Krenz. Perhaps the absolutely very best surprise party that I ever pulled off was for Dans 50th birthday celebration. Dans 50th birthday took place in April of 1985. In September of 1984, I sent letters to family and friends living on five continents, inviting them to a surprise birthday party, and asking them to send notes with memories of Dan. Had the mail delivered to a post office box so that nothing would show up at our mailbox. His parents arrived from California to stay with us for a week. His niece flew in from Rochester, NY for a few hours on a stop on her way back to California. Friends came for a long weekend, and they took our four sons with them to our church, St. Benedict the Moor to put up decorations, including the hundreds of card and notes that had been arriving for the past several months. Dan drove his niece back to her hotel so that she could fly back to California. Hugged her and said good-bye to her, and came back home. Our kids were still away with our friends. This was because I had told Dan that a group of friends from church wanted us to join them for an evening of ballroom dancing, something that we did occasionally. We planned to meet them at our church. Dan and I, and his parents arrived at the church as planned, and I suggested that we go inside so that we could meet our friends. As Dan opened the door to the darkened church hall, lights flashed on and this huge sound of Surprise rang out. His surprised face delighted all of us. The party went on for about an hour when all of a sudden his niece, Mary Jo Rossi, who he had driven to the hotel hours earlier, showed up, and she was not alone. Walking with her was her mom, Dans sister, Ann Marie. His surprise could not have been any greater. Sheer joy! Kris surprise 40th birthday is just the latest in a long history of planning and hosting surprise parties for a whole host of people who I love/loved. I have loved being on both the planning side, and the receiving side, of these surprise birthday celebrations. I especially enjoy that Dan loves to plan and to have a surprise party as much as I do. Makes our life together very interesting! May YOU, TOO, know the joy of special events in your own lives. Peace, Jackie
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 19:27:19 +0000
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