2017.17 Worth their weight in spiced gumdrops

It is December the 23^rd and while I have completed most of my Christmas shopping (and that is a tale unto itself). I am woefully behind on my Christmas blogging.  Matthew and I taped at least 4 day drinking and crafting videos, but you have only seen one.  Why is that? Well the free software that I used to edit the thing only lets me upload one video.  So although I have edited the second one, I can’t post in anywhere, so I am looking at what my options are.  Also, as I understand it, many people couldn’t watch it on their phones, so I may need to break it apart and blog a series of clips.  So there is that.

But here and now? I am posting the party pics I got from Katie Powell.  In years past I have asked my Paul’s “best friend from his whole life” Katie Powell to take party pictures because #1 she is really good at it, and B) she accepts payment in spiced gumdrops.  This last summer when she took Paul’s senior pictures that I haven’t done anything with, I told her about this article I read where a SUPER EXTRA person hired an artist to do tiny watercolors of her wedding reception guests instead of photographs and I suggested that at some point in Katie’s artistic career we could look forward to that.  Sometimes she looks at me like she is afraid to say what she really thinks.  This was one of those times.

This year I did not ask Katie in advance to take pictures or miniature watercolors because I know, busy college student, whole life going on, maybe too cool for the party blah blah blah.  But when she mentioned that she did have her camera in the car… How could I resist that opportunity to exploit?  In any case here are some of my favorite pictures that Katie took at the party. 

Mama Kat about to go off,,,

I wonder where Mama Kat gets it? ;-)

somethings defy explanation

see? who can explain?

Baby Scott and Whitney

Najah and Ciela! So very perfect.

Yeah for the Swinneys!

I winder what Larry said to Sandy?

Kathleen and Cathy have been friends since before God invented water.

Yeah for Donna getting Bo and Larry out of the Civic Center in time for the party!

Amy and Baby Thor!

Silly Games!

2017.16 Say their names

So here it is the 22nd of December. I am on day what? 16.  So a week behind. But I am not not giving up yet.

Today is Jay Kopp’s Bday.  He would be 39 if he had not ended his life last December. I know many of his friends gathered a few weeks back on the anniversary of that day to honor and remember him.  I remember Jay all the time, but I could not bring myself to celebrate that day.

This brings us here.  Around Thanksgiving my friend Jennifer Owen Hill shared this saying on FB about three deaths, and the final death is when a person’s name is spoken for the last time.  I think about that. Often. 

When I decorated for the party last year, I put out ‘reserved’ cards for those that I had lost in the months leading up the party as a way to honor them and remember them and to say that even without their physical presence, I have not forgotten them. 

This year’s decorations included picture frames.  Initially I had planned to put pictures of the many guests and loved ones who once attended our party, (or intended to) and are no longer with us.  As I ran out of time I came up with this alternative.  I actually liked it better than I had planned. 

It hurts that there are so many people who we loved and who are gone.  It hurts that unfortunately the list can only get longer the longer we have the party.  It hurts, but I do not want to be the one who says these names for the last time, so I am saying them and I plan to continue saying them.

Jane Rogers Meeks

 Jay Kopp

Chris Young

Jan Kinkade

Mike Sutton

Stephanie Dunaway Forrest

Amanda Rohn

Ann Hankins

Geraldine Black

2017.15 45 Trees?

I may have mentioned 45 trees were a decorating issue I was struggling with pre-party? What was that about?  Well those in the know may remember 2 years ago for the silver 25^th party I went a little over the top with the decorating. Polishing all that silver, and the silver decorations, the ornament chandeliers… After that year Kat had me agree I wouldn’t spend money on the next year’s decorations.

So I reigned it in and last year I only decorated using items we already owned (raiding the boxes of Christmas decorations that are in storage here in Oklahoma).  I liked how it turned out, and got multiple compliments, including how elegant it looked.   The downside is that when the night was over I had to pack all those decorations up and then… uggghhhh… take them back to storage. So last year Kat said, no more, this year when the party was over she wanted to throw the ornaments in the trash.

I don’t believe that she thought I would remember, or that I would comply. However, I spent the better part of the year trying to figure out how to make that happen.  I think I came up with a good plan, thanks in large part to help from my unpaid interns, and despite some Saturday afternoon panic I was really happy with how they turned out, and the table decorations that did not find new homes with party guests went in the trash and did not have to come home or to storage with us. 

So here, for the first time are the party decorations, both the completed party shots, and the pictures from ‘in the process’.  Just know that even though designers said red, and Scandinavian, and rose gold were the hot trends we went with a mostly monochrome theme, despite what people may think, I am not just a slave to trends, HA!

Oh, and the table wreaths? After a craft fair in Shawnee we saw a woman toss them in the trash. I pointed it out to Kat and she said if Matthew and I had a plan for them, as long as they did not come home from the party... So we grabbed them, took some garish ribbon off and then spray painted them with a coat of white paint.  Nice!