Weekend in Pictures: Anniversary & Birthday

This weekend was one of much celebration.  It all began with a two hour radio special that my grandma dedicated in Michoacán for my parents (who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary) and thanks to the internet we were able to listen to it from the states.  Family from all over called in to the radio and offered sweet sentiments while dedicating songs to my parents.  While their actual anniversary was on Friday – we decided to celebrate until Saturday because November 16 is a sweet sorrow of a day.  It not only marks the day both came together under God vowing to love one another until do them part, it’s also the anniversary of my brother’s death.  Thus, on Saturday we headed to a loudly decorated Mexican restaurant and with live Mariachi we celebrated a blessing of blessings – getting to witness fifty years of wedded bliss.  In fifty years so much has happened both good as well as many difficult challenges that could have caused a rupture an end, but in all the bad God worked to redeem every tear and heartbreak.  Today, my parents have baptized our home with laughter, I love being in my bedroom and hearing them laugh at each other’s silliness throughout our home.  They are both so goofy and so loving- that reaching their golden anniversary is as much of a triumph as it is reaching it with so much love, with so much joy and so much hope for the future.  My dad loves to shower my mom with compliments and my mom loves to be of service to him, is as if they know without having read The Five Love Languages, how each loves to be loved.  Sunday, we were able to go to Mass together and again we joined in prayer with our family in Mexico together offering Mass for my parents and also getting to witness father bestow a special blessing on the love birds.

On Friday, I also celebrated in my usual creative form my birthday – this time with an escape room themed celebration.  On Thursday, my sister and I worked on making my favorite carrot cake with homemade cream cheese icing.  She worked on the cake and I worked on the investigative decorations- after watching many episodes of “The Great British Baking Show,” I have learned that style over substance is a big no-no, so my sis and I worked on making a cake that tasted as good as it looked (smile).  I made reservations with Brainy Actz, a company that specializes in escape room fun.  Choosing the art theme room, my group and I were brought together by an international syndicate to locate the Master’s lair and retrieve the stolen Mona Lisa.  It was so much fun working together and at times just watching the creativity of each of my friends’ in solving complex puzzles, riddles and needed hints to try to make it out of the room before the clock struck an hour’s time.  The complexity in finding the lost painting and getting out of the room within an hour was really surprising.  The difficulty was definitely huge making the group working together a must, but even the two children that joined my party were able to participate.  We did manage to solve the challenge, after receiving a few hints from our hosts (smile), my nephew loved it so much he wants to do it again for his birthday!

My strongest love language is quality time and this weekend had so much of it that it filled my heart with so much joy!