The Queen's 75th

My Mother turned 75 the weekend after Thanksgiving. With all the hullabaloo of Thanksgiving and the rush to get out everything Christmas, she thought that we (her family) would just celebrate it quietly.

HA!

She could not have been more wrong!

We surprised her with a little shindig on 

the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving.

About 100 of her closest friends showed up!

We were ready for the masses.

We had a dessert buffet, along with fruit

and a variety of cheeses, brie and crackers.

My Mother is very, very Irish,

very, very Southern,

and very, very old-school manners. 

My niece, Libby, made the shamrock cookies.

Each of the four granddaughters,

my sister-in-law, my sister and I made all the food....

And enjoyed every minute of it.

The grandsons kept her entertained and

preoccupied until we were ready to spring 

the surprise on her.

My cousin Scott made 75 pieces of fudge, decorated and cut precisely!

 The table was centered with a centerpiece of 75 white and minty green (in honor of her Irish heritage) roses, put together by my sister-in-law the talented florist. 

Besides all the good food, one of the best parts of the birthday bash were the presents.

Obviously, my Mother does not need a single thing, nor 

would we ever expect our guests to bring presents.

We had a better idea.

Along with the invitation, we sent out a little white card.

We asked that instead of big presents, we would like each guest to bring a Christmas ornament that made the guest

think of my Mother.

They were to attach the included card, with an 

explanation of why they chose that ornament.

And would  you believe that with all those people, we did not have a single duplicate ornament?

It was clear that people put a lot of thought into 

picking out their ornament.

She had SO much fun reading the birthday cards

and especially reading the cards attached to each

ornament.

We also bought a tree for her to hang the ornaments,

and had it handy so that as she opened the ornaments

we hung them.

The day was truly a special 75th.

We had so much fun thinking of ideas that were

a little out of the box.

There is only one problem....

after my Mom took down all her other trees

and Christmas decor

she just can't bear to take down the

"memory tree".

It is still up and she said she reads the little 

notes all the time!

I am linking this with Tablescape Thursday.