This was a while back but I’m still playing catch up from summer and school starting and this was just as the craziness was picking up. Our favorite man had a big birthday. I love to throw parties and I went through the best mental list of all the parties we could throw for his big day. I floated the idea by him of having a party and he shut it down. Of course, I’m more persistent than that. So I kept working through what a reasonable party for him would be and he reiterated several times that he did not want a party. Who doesn’t want to celebrate with a party?! Evidently, Steve doesn’t.
So there was no big celebration. (Which in my mind is a little anti-climatic)
We quietly celebrated 40 wonderful years with a trip to Dutch Bros for a smoothie, a wide variety of root beer from Total Wine and More, an afternoon of swimming in the pool, a quiet dinner for the two of us and a special gift that so many of his family and friends contributed to – a book: 40 years of influence.
Steve is hard to give gifts to because he doesn’t want for much – but a personalized gift always trumps anything I could ever buy for him. Earlier in the summer I had collected letters, memories and pictures from people that Steve loved and admired: People he’s related to and people he’s worked with – and everyone in between and it was the perfect gift for him. He said it was better than a party – I think he’s forgotten how amazing my parties are!! 🙂
