Papa's Party

Being the chronic over-committer that I am, I willingly agreed to host Jon's dad's birthday dinner on the same day as the school's Spring Basketball Banquet for 200 for which I was also responsible. Granted, a dinner for 5 is much easier but I was still in need of all the help I could muster. Many hands you know ...

Jon grabbed some balloons after the banquet to make our party atmosphere more festive. (It's OK - we donated the balloons so we didn't technically "steal" them!)

I needed a dessert with things I had in the pantry (Thank you, Carole!) We made a few modifications; we don't like nuts so we added Heath Crunch Chips and Butterscotch Chips - um, YUM!

And the assistant was happy to have a function that allowed her to nibble at the fixings. For the record, kitties DO like coconut almost in an Al Pacino / Scarface kinda way! Sorry no photo but I'm sure your imagination is doing just fine.

Jon, pretty much knowing that all the buttons were being pushed this past weekend, came to the rescue on Saturday night by doing all the things that needed to be done for a recipe that requires overnight marinating. Our family favorite, Chicken Marbella, was ready to just pop into the oven and go Sunday afternoon.

Sounds like a lot of fuss for just one guy on his 79th birthday doesn't it. But he's worth it and looks to me like he's pretty darn happy about it too.

Happy Birthday Papa Jim!