[Dad McMains->] and [Lana->] have been married 25 years today. In recognition of the occasion, [Chris->], [Meara->] and I decided to put together a celebration for them where they could be feted by family and friends. Our friends the McNeels have a lovely ranch house, and offered to make it available and lure the couple to their place for the party. We schemers put together the guest list and coordinated the planning, a task made considerable more challenging by the fact that Chris was in England and Meara in Laos for a large portion of the lead-up time. Thanks to the joys of covert email, however, we were able to pull it off.

I arrived with my family and the rest of the [Grant Mazak Band->] about an hour before the honorees were scheduled to show. We quickly set up, got everybody positioned, welcomed the other arriving guests, and then waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It turned out that while we had told everybody that the honorees would be there at 6:30, they had been informed that their ostensible dinner with friends was starting around 7:00, and they were running late even for that. We struck up some music to keep the guests entertained until they arrived, which of course they finally did.

Now, Dad is notorious for finding out about surprise parties in advance. Previous to this, we have only been able to pull the wool over his eyes once, when we celebrated his 60th birthday. Thus, we were delighted when they finally showed up to see the astonished looks on their faces. “That’s twice!” he told Chris.

They made their rounds, greeting friends from in town and family that had come from as far away as Fort Worth. We all dug into huge piles of delicious Rudy’s BBQ, passed around champagne, toasted the couple, cut into a large and delicious chocolate cake, and whiled away the rest of the evening with music, dancing, good conversation and the company of friends. We even launched into an unrehearsed rendition of The Chicken Dance at one point, recognizing that the crowd was receptive.

The night was a thorough delight, and everything we’d hoped that it would be. Many thanks to the McNeels for hosting and to everyone else who was involved in making it a special time for some very special people.