Last Saturday we had Beautiful's graduation celebration! It was a delightful time and it went off without any hitches (to my knowledge:) I am so thankful for a friend of ours who helped us with all of the decorating and thinking through the celebration since she has done it twice before. Beautiful and I had shopped a few days before (with our friend), along with doing wedding dress alterations and more shopping for the wedding, etc. We had bought my graduation dress at the first store of the morning and hers at the last store in the late afternoon. When I got home and was putting my dress away it occurred to me that we had both bought royal blue dresses lol! People kept asking us if we had planned it that way. Nope, I just have a bad memory lol!
The day was also Buddy's 15th birthday. We got him his own cake. He had a friend over the night before to go watch the latest Avenger's movie (Buddy is thrilled that his birthday always falls on the opening weekend of some new Marvel movie lol!) Two other friends then played board games with them through the graduation party. It was a far more enjoyable situation for them than to mingle with guests:) I was so thankful for our friend who offered the afternoon activities:)
I was so stressed about the food ahead of time. Would there be enough? Would there be too much if no body came? How to get it all served? We had 4 amazingly wonderful women who willingly very, very competently took over all of the food process. I also reduced my stress by not cooking any of it myself (so thankful for the local grocery store!) The women not only did all of the prep (we had a soccer game that morning so by the time we got back, got the kids showered and everyone dressed it was an hour before the celebration!) but then also did the cleanup. I did not expect that! I was able to just be a hostess, greeting people and getting to talk to everyone. There was the perfect number of people at just the right flow that I felt like I got to have some kind of meaningful conversation with just about everyone. It built my confidence a little for the wedding...but we will be potentially talking about over 300 people instead of just 100;)
The graduation really touched me. Everyone who came to celebrate with us was so wonderful. All of her home school basketball team friends who came was so thoughtful - especially since she didn't even play this year. I was thankful for the warm weather so that we could wheel my mother in law down from and back the nursing home so she could participate too. Thankfully the nursing home is only 6 blocks away:)
Probably the most touching part of the party for me were the 5 women who sacrificed their Saturday to cheerfully, thoughtfully, competently, and lovingly serve our family by doing the decorations and the food. I actually spent quite a bit of time that night thinking over why it touched me so much. I realized that in my life I have not had people who came around me and sacrificially served me. I am more used to people looking for excuses not to be involved, not caring about what I care about, making me feel guilty for asking for help, or making it clear that it is an obligation that they would rather not be a part of. Thus, I have such a hard time asking for help and tend to try to be an island unto myself (which I am being forced off of with current life situations). I was, and our family was totally blessed by these women. I am getting a bit sappy here so I will stop now:)
I did not let myself get too sentimental about this being Beautiful's graduation and that it means she is leaving soon. I figure that getting ready for the wedding and college will keep me occupied enough. However, come the wedding date I know I will be a total wreck. It is one thing to send her off to college when she will still depend on us and be home on weekends. It is another when we will be handing her off to permanently cleave to someone else... Sigh...I am getting emotional and need to stop this. I will miss her so incredibly much. But, we also could not have handed her over to a more worthy man who adores her. All will be well:)
Another good thing came out of the graduation party...Buddy, our hermit child, hates to have his picture taken...or be around crowds of people. When I made the big 4x3 foot collage of photos of Beautiful's life he remarked, "Huh, I guess I will have to start letting Mom take pictures of me or she won't have anything for my collage!" Yay! That means he is at least resigned to having some kind of celebration for his graduation lol!
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