A Lifetime of Moments

Y'know I love birthdays. Birthdays of all shapes and sizes. 6th, 23rd, 48th, 2nd... whatever the case may be. I love them. I especially love big ones like the 21st, 30th, 50th or in this case the (drum roll) 60th!!! Which is what my Dad celebrated this past week.

My family and I really wanted to make this birthday special for him. And plans for this started back in January. We came up with a great idea for his gift this year (Thanks to Pinterest...). And with a lot of help from our family and our friends, we were able to pull it off. We mailed letters out - lots of them - and asked those closest to Dad over the years to send in wishes, memories & happy thoughts so that we could combine them and give Dad 60 for his birthday. We got 90. We combined them all into one book for him to pour over and look through. There are no words to describe his reaction because really - there.were.no.words. He was speechless...

It took him a minute to figure it out...

But once he did, he couldn't believe what he was reading...

He's been going through all of them for days and days. Some choke him up...

But mostly, he looks like this...

Sista made Dad a "Wall of His Own Happy". Pictures from his life that capture those moments - the ones you really wanna hold on to...

And we had one helluva Oyster Roast with friends and family and people who traveled from near (Charlotte) and very far (Iran). His cake was perfect...

And so is the memory of all of us sending 60 floating lanterns up into the sky...

This was one of those moments that will go on my own Wall of Happy. It was one of those that I really wanna hold on to.

His life is a very large, very bright quilt that is made of many different threads of people. Those people came together and gave him a great gift this weekend - a book that bursts of love and laughter and a lifetime of moments.