Dad's 80th Birthday Party

Back in November my Dad turned 80 years old. I was very excited that all my sisters and my step sisters would be here for the celebration. This has not happened since my Dad and Jan married back in 1981. We almost accomplished this task back when my Dad turned 75 but it didn't happen. The party was held the weekend of Thanksgiving. We used the relief society room at the Stk Center. The day of the party was spent decorating and setting up. It was a lot of fun hanging out with so much family and catching up with one another.

I planned the party around our Scottish heritage. The centerpieces on the tables had the Hay tartan with pictures of my Dad growing up. We had a table showing some Scottish castles and books and a few artifacts such as knives, jewelry, pins and scarves. We also had a picture of my Dad wearing his kilt. I borrowed a mannequin and Morgan was able to transform it into a Scottish looking man. Not an easy task since the mannequin was originally a size 2 women. On one of the walls we had a family tree graphed out with my Dad at the head and each of his 9 daughters listed with their husbands and children and grandchildren. This was really fun to see and I think the guests enjoyed looking at it. We set tables out on the patio as well as inside. My brother in law Roger and his boys, Hunter and Estin and Hunter's fiance along with Julie did a great job of hanging the lights. It was really pretty and added a lot to our decorations.

I was very relieved to have the party catered. I decided on hors d'oeuvers and desserts (mainly several different types of pies) for the party. Stacey Tipton did an amazing job with the food it tasted wonderful and was displayed beautifully. For entertainment, Arianna sang a song and Elaine planned a skit using interesting facts about Dad. She had family members who were the age of Dad at that time share the events about Dad's life. It was really cute and fun.

We presented a book that Jessica and I managed to put together, to my Dad at the party. Each daughter was to submit pictures of her family and reasons why we love our Dad. These reasons were anything from serious to silly. This book was a huge project and Jessica did a great job. The book turned out beautiful and looked professional in quality. All 9 daughters were highlighted with their families. Grandchildren were able to write tributes and birthday wishes in the book as well.
Another project that I was able to do was a picture tribute of my Dad. I enjoyed putting this video together. The best part was the time I get to spend with my Dad talking about the pictures. I learned so many things about his childhood and young adult years. This was such a labor of love project for me. During the party I had the video playing continuously. I have since added music to it and mailed copies out to different family members.It was the never ending project... but so worth it!
Probably one of the more difficult tasks was prior to the party we took family pictures. The only place we were able to do this was in the cultural hall of the church due to space and lighting. We used the stage and worked with what we had, both with background and lighting as well as people.

With such a large group of people it was proving almost impossible to photograph everyone. Every daughter got a picture with her family and Dad. Every married grandchild and their individual family got pictures with Dad. We got the picture of all 9 girls and our parents. We got the great grandchildren that were in attendance with Dad and Jan. But two shots we didn't get were all the grand children that were in attendance at the party with Dad ( a few boys left before I realized it) And I was never able to get a full group shot of all family members in attendance. Oh well we did the best we could!

I was very pleased at the way things came together for the party. I was very impressed that such a large group of family members could make it to this event. All nine daughters were in attendance. Out of my (5) sisters 14 out of 20 grandchildren were in attendance. And 14 out of 16 great grandchildren were in attendance. My step sisters had 3 grandchildren out of 8 there at the party. And a note worthy mention 2 granddaughters were pregnant at the party. And the party continues... Another baby has been announced, we've had one wedding in January and another wedding coming in May. Two grandsons are now serving missions. Dad, you continue to be an amazing example to all of us.