Brian Turns 40!!

The day after we said goodbye to Chauncey we had our annual Henry Holiday Party.  I'm not gonna lie - it was a fabulous distraction for all of us.

And, since my husband was turning  40 on New Years Eve, I turned it into a "Surprise!!! It's your 40th Birthday!!" also.  

He had No. Idea.

I had been planning it for months and we had nearly 100 people there this year to help celebrate. I wish I had taken pictures, but you'll have to imagine how much food we had....

 I put all the leaves in my dining room table and there was so much food on it, you couldn't see the table cloth.  On top of that, we had the dresser/buffet covered with hot dishes and crock pots, along with two other tables brought into the dining room for the evening and snacks in the sitting room, kitchen and family room

People finished up the last of the food in the wee hours of the morning. 

I had absolutely NO LEFTOVERS.  

At one point I couldn't see from one end of the family room to the dining room because of all the bodies.  

Crazy....

My mom made his cake

Several friends conspired with me and we made him go on a liquor run once the majority of the guests had arrived (and we had so much beer, wine and liquor I have no idea why he fell for that, but he did - ha!) and as soon as they pulled out of the driveway, my  girls came running downstairs with the decorations we had made and stashed away earlier and we hastily threw up some purple, black and white tissue paper poofs, a ton of streamers,  a Happy Birthday Banner, and blew up and hung nearly 30 balloons.

Thank God for the wonderful friends we have - everyone pitched in - I was frantic - and the place was decorated in 15 minutes flat, the cake was on the table and the last candle was lit as he walked through the front door to cheers of "SURPRISE!!!"

Sadly, I took no pictures and the ones that were taken were blurry ....

He's trying to figure out what the hell is going on....all the kids had horns and followed him around blowing them constantly.  Until I confiscated them all.....

He's figured it out now ...

.

Our good friends, Mike, Meg and Meg's mom, Michelle, made him some custom corn hole boards with matching bags for his birthday.  Mike is the biggest Steelers fan in the world so it just shows you how much they love Brian that they made him  RAVENS themed boards. 

Can't wait to use these...

Mom Bloom (aka, Michelle) giving him his purple bags which she made for the game.

 It was such a wonderful evening and I have to tell you I have no idea what time the party broke up although I heard rumors of 3:00 am, at which time I was snoring upstairs.

Yes, I had a big fat headache the next day.

That was the end of our holiday entertaining for 2012 - WHEW! 

Three events  in 6 days  was a bit much.....