Behind Again

Don’t ask me how you fall behind when you have nothing to do, yet here we are.  Last week went by so quickly.  We were in town at Kara’s a lot getting ready for the party.  We checked in with the venue (Scottish Lodge Hall) and went over regular and Covid details.  There could be no buffet but a caterer was allowed to dish up prepared food, she had to have a bartender, no self serve.  Only 50% of capacity was allowed.  Everyone had to wear a mask. With that done we regrouped to establish and tackle jobs to make the party happen as safely as possible.

We rolled a small packet of hand sanitizer, salt & pepper packets, knife and fork in a napkin and taped it shut with yellow strips made with sticky on one side. We washed our hands, sanitized our hands and wore gloves.  She had ordered 8 dozen cupcakes and bought individual containers to put them in.  Then she made labels for the different flavors.  

We felt well prepared for celebrating as safely as possible.  Imagine our surprise on Friday when the hall called and said the Board of Health had just visited and said they were wrong in classifying them as a restaurant and they were an Event Center with a limit of 10 people.  They and the caterer could lose their licenses and attendees could be fined $1000!?!

By Saturday morning they had a plan in place to have it at home, outside in their yard.  As a precaution she had bought two canopy tents intending to use one on their patio in the summer and take one back if she did not run into the exact problem we were dealing with.  The biggest item was tables and chairs which she was able to rent at the last minute.  She and Bill were able to pick them up using both SUVs. With that taken care of, I knew we could do this.  

The caterer said he was running into this and coming to their house instead was no problem.  He served all the food while gloved and had wrapped each dinner roll in its own baggie.  

The patio

The Chill table 

The Driveway

Restrooms

Kara had his Awards Table all ready with help from Morgan and Kristin.  She displayed it next to their 50” TV brought outside to run the slideshow she created of his life.  It was exceptional and I made three appearances plus one of my hands holding him.  In addition to a check I wrapped up a DVD that we had in at least 4 RVs.  It was from 1930s cartoons, most of which were Popeye.  As soon as he climbed into the RV he wanted to watch those old time black and white cartoons.  Morgan was excited too because she said it had prompted her interest in drawing.  (She is an excellent artist).  I worried he would think it was dumb but he was elated.  He remembered watching it none stop and said it was like finding an old friend.  

It turned out to be a beautiful day.  It was on the warm side but the shade and a nice breeze kept most everyone comfortable.  The kids were able to play all sorts of games on the grass and the last people didn’t leave until about 10:30.  I was expecting Daughter #4 and her family at the park for dinner on Monday.  Sheetal has been a part of our family for 37 years as Kristin’s best friend.

Turns out Kara sent me home with all the leftovers because they all decided to come!  I really didn’t have to do much though.  More heating up than cooking!  

Today we are going to take Sam to his haircut thinking I could get my nails done.  But they aren’t allowed to do powder dip so I decided to just wait.  But we are having one last family dinner because Larry and Kristin fly back to Florida on Wednesday and we head into Indiana and then Kentucky on Thursday and Friday.