SURPRISE! Happy Birthday Dad.

We had a rough week emotionally last week with the passing of Spiro's Dad and all of the mourning that it comes with. Mom had planned a surprise 80th birthday brunch for Dad over a month ago that happened to fall on yesterday. After going back and forth about canceling out of respect for Spiro, she decided to move forward with it because, if Barb and her family couldn't make it, it would be okay and they'd be able to celebrate on his real birthday next Friday. She had it planned so long ago and to try and reschedule it was virtually impossible with everyone's fall schedule, so we went ahead with it. There were around 20 of us at this really nice restaurant close to their place. He was SHOCKED. I can't believe we pulled it off. Totally shocked. I have a video of him it was a great surprise. Eva was the only one who couldn't make it because she started her new fancy chef job for the famous chef Jean Georges at one of his restaurants in Connecticut. She loves it. SO proud of her.

Anyway, the party was a mix of friends, cousins, siblings, spouses, etc. A real nice tribute to him. And it wasn't at anyone's house, with stress and clean up and nonsense. It was done right at a great restaurant, everyone could drink and order whatever they wanted. I did the flowers and balloons. It was PERFECT. Then my Mom hosted us all back to their place for an "after party" which was great. He opened gifts. Man, was everyone so generous. He was gifted $800 cash from all of the invitees and a great $300 Morton's Steakhouse gift card. And we had the chance to chill out, catch up and laugh. It was a great ending to what started as a really sad week. Barb and her family wound up coming which was nice. Spiro is still very much in mourning and grieving...

So that was that yesterday. Now, we move on to the last 2 days of summer vacation. Charlotte's first day is Tuesday. Our first day is Wednesday. And so it begins...