Birthday Bash

 

This week I entered a new decade of life.  To celebrate I invited several close friends to join me for a Mad Hatter High Tea at the castle on the hill in Eugene, Oregon, otherwise known as the Shelton-McMurphy-Johnson house. 

My guests came dressed for a party. Many of us wore our favorite hats. Several wore long skirts.

 

We enjoyed a three course menu complete with aromatic tea.

Savory Course

Roast Beast with Blue Cheese Tea Sandwich

Tarragon Chicken in a Puff Pastry Horn

Spring Pea Goat Cheese with Chorizo Tartlet

Caprese Stuffed Mushrooms

Scones Course

Queens Cream Scone

Strawberry Rhubarb Scone

Devonshire Cream

Orange Tabby Marmalade

Dessert Course

Vanilla Bean Queen of Hearts Cupcakes

Berry Lemon Curd Pavlovas

Chocolate Panna Cotta

 

We laughed at the memories each of us had shared in my life, and since my guests ranged in age from mid-thirties to just a year past ninety, the stories were as different as the people from whom they came.  Looking back on our lives together we learned more about each person there.

After the meal, we toured the house with a docent learning the structure’s history and hearing the sagas of the three decades of families who had lived within its walls. The house had survived despite two devastating fires and a few years of neglect.  To roam its elegant rooms and view the city from its windows, a visitor would never suspect any tragic moments had occurred.

I loved doing this with my friends. I’ve attended too many celebrations of life where I wished I could have one more hour to share memories with that person. Celebrate the living while we may. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us.

James 4:14: “Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.”