Mum and Dad celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on December 21 2007. Marc, Shane, Darryl & I flew up to Townsville.
Steve and I had organised the celebration. Steve drove Mum and Dad to Townsville RSL Club at 6.30pm, and we headed upstairs to an area which had been specially set out for us with tables around in a big u-shape. Golden balloons were attached to Mum and Dad's chairs, and a foil Gold balloon floated from a table at the front, and gold 50th confetti was scattered on the white tablecloths. Initially, this top floor was packed with lots of noisy people, who were there for a competition for the RSL, but once the competition was over they cleared away and everyone else arrived.
Mal drove down from Innisfail with his partner, Deb. Jeffrey drove down from Cairns with his girlfriend Stacey. Terri and David arrived from Charters Towers with Blake and the new baby, Cayden who was only a month old. And, of course, Steve, Heather and Justin were also there. Mum and Dad were thrilled to have their entire family, children, grand-children, and great grand-children, all present to celebrate 50 years of marriage. As everyone was arriving we had pre-dinner drinks, and then ordered our meals. A surprise visit by Santa had the children excited, although the parents were a little worried about the effects of the lollies (mind you, some of them got lollies from the bag too!). Although our meals took a while to arrive, when they did, everyone was quite impressed with what was on their plate. Marc was especially impressed, as they had actually got his order wrong, and when he accepted what was offered, the waitress bought him a drink!
We were all feeling quite satisfied when out came a chef with a huge cake, which was then put on the front table. Barrie and Val cut the cake and distributed it to all (except for poor me, who cannot eat wheat ) it was apparently a deliciously, moist chocolate cake topped with cream, chocolate curls and cherries!
After dinner, I guided all to chairs set up in the middle of the table, and showed a video presentation which included colour movie footage of the original wedding, and Mum and Dad's slide collection, along with photos, and the key milestones of their lives. There was quite a bit of hilarity and jokes during the presentation, not diminished by the fact that the majority of the slides included our me (being the first-born), with many less of Malcolm, and only a few of Steven! Everyone was also entertained by the antics between Justin and Blake. With both of them not quite 3, they are both full of beans, and had a great time with the helium-filled balloons.
At the end of the film, I presented Mum and Dad with letters of congratulations from the Premier of Qld, Anna Bligh, the Governor of Qld, Quentin Bryce, the Governor General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, and since the night a letter has also arrived from Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister. We then presented them with a gift from all, being a digital picture frame, which has a clock-calendar showing, but can also show a slide show, to music, of the family photographs. Sadly, all events have to come to an end, and way past Mum and Dad's normal bed-times they were delivered home…but were able to take some of that lovely cake, which they savoured for a couple of days afterwards.
In the top photo we have:
Back Row L-R: Deb, Marc, Shane, Malcolm, Jeffrey, Stacey, David
Front Row L-R: Heather, Steven (with Justin), Barrie, Val, Chris (with Blake), Terri (with Cayden)
To the right is the photo of Val and Barrie cutting the cake.
No comments:
Post a Comment