My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past Thursday. As a big surprise, my four siblings who live across the county came into town. It was fun to coordinate things with everyone and to pull off such a big surprise. It was amusing also to tell my parents all of the things they thought I was doing all week when I was actually getting ready for the anniversary. My sister asked my Mom if she thought we could be so thoughtful and she said "No!"

My sisters and I gave my parents some beautiful pasta bowls. We tried to focus on gifts that had to do with family stories or memories. Back before I was born (but I think my Mom was pregnant with me) my Mom had had enough with her six kids who were acting like pigs. She made a big pot of spaghetti, put a plastic tablecloth on the table and dumped the entire pot on the table. She told my siblings that if they were going to act like pigs then they were going to eat like pigs also. Half of my siblings were offended and left the table and half happily stayed at the table to eat like pigs. Our personalities are somewhat summarized by those who stayed at the table and those who left. Everyone agrees I would have stayed. The new bowls are to show my parents we are a little bit more grown up now.

My Mom could not stop smiling all weekend.

Brian took this nice photo of all of my siblings. Brothers and sisters came in from Minnesota, Chicago, Connecticut, and Seattle.