Surprise Party!

Jim n' I wanted a chance to say goodbye to our friends before leaving town this weekend, so as some of you may have seen, I made a little FB event. While I invited a few close friends who I knew would never be able to make it, I was kinda surprised to see that other people I knew in town were completely ignoring it. Fair enough, I tend to ignore these things too until I'm sure I can/cannot attend. But it still seemed kind of odd... except for the fact that earlier in the week, we had been invited to Richard and Michelle's for dinner. While Jim n' I have never gone over to their place just for dinner before, we have been there for countless surprise parties. Our suspicions were easily raised. ;)

But then Michelle asked if it was okay if Laura joined us, which threw me off a bit. Why would she ask permission for Laura to come... unless it was her intent to throw us off....

Jim n' I had a few discussions of "Do you think this is a surprise party?", but didn't want to use our jump to conclusions mat. Still, something seemed fishy considering that no one was responding to my invite, Michelle and Richard host every surprise party, and Nick asked for Jay's email addy and had also asked us two or three times what our plans were for Saturday night.  Still, we decided to attend with no expectations, because even if it was a simple dinner with Michelle, Richard and Laura, that would be perfectly fine too.

But as Laura, Jim n' I drove up to R & M's place, I noticed the tell-tale signs of balloons marking the driveway. Then as we pulled in, I recognized Cheryl's car... although Cheryl wasn't actually there, since she was one of several friends suffering from the flu right now. But I'll tell you who was there...

Michelle and Richard (of course), Russ and Shannon, Linsey and Tim, Vlad and Valentina, Laura, Tamara, Nick, Jay, and Andy. A bunch of others were invited but either had the flu or other plans. Still, what a terrific turnout! We both felt very honoured. There were even all kinds of decorations like balloons, stars and movie posters on the walls, a nifty movie canister and movie slate centerpiece designed by Russ, red curtains around the TV which showcased our DE website, funny games posted on the fridge (Write a rumour about Jim n' Mel, and What should they say during their Oscar acceptance speech), all kinds of delicious food contributed by everyone, and a cake that looked like a big bowl of popcorn. Awesome!

Even though we had our initial suspicions (I think Casa Kooistra is starting to become a giveaway location ;), the party itself was much more than we could've ever expected. It made us feel very warm in our hearts, and all Sunday we kept talking about how nice it was.

So thank you everyone for coming out, and those who planned to, but couldn't. We really, really appreciated it. :)