May 17, 2014

Stephen's Graduation Party

Graduation Day - Part II

Saturday, May 17, 2014

What a delightful celebration!  Since we live far from Dallas, it was hard to find a location for Stephen's party.  I asked my sister, Janet, if we could do the party at their home in Keller - near Ft. Worth.  Stephen was concerned that many of his friends would not be free to go that far for the party, but those he has been closest to showed up and it was a very nice evening.  The weather was perfect, the location was outstanding, and I think everyone had a wonderful time.

Stephen has always selected very nice friends. The ones who came to the party were from the church he currently belongs to, and the one he belonged to before that, young men from his Bible study group, and some who have been friends with Kristina for years and now are his friends.  Kristina's family was there as well as the Coopers, (who I mentioned earlier led the archeological dig in Israel).  Then there were those from our family.

The group was a perfect size.  We had tables inside the house, and outside on the patio.  That helped me on the hearing situation, so that not everyone was crowded into one area.  It was still noisy to me, in the house, but not like it would have been if everyone had stayed inside.

The young people chose the patio area and had so much fun laughing together and just sitting around the patio table talking.  As is my habit, I spent most of my time in the kitchen.  I find that in the kitchen, one or two people will wander in to visit and I can hear them.  If I am at a table with several, I don't hear well.  Several of Stephen's friends spent time visiting with me "one on one" and I appreciated them taking the time to do that.  One had asked about my broken elbow (from almost a year ago) and it showed me that Stephen talks to them about his family and they care enough to remember and ask.

Bob and Vickey spent a lot of time with the Coopers and Bob was fascinated with all that Dr. Cooper shared about the work he has done over the years going to Israel on Archaeological digs.  I think Bob was ready to pack up and go with him on future trip.  As part of the decorations, we had displayed many photos from Stephen's trip over there and it was good to hear the Coopers comment on those photos.
 

As you may recall, I had been working on a quilt for Stephen for graduation and he had selected the fabrics over a 3 year period.  After we had most of the fabrics, I had laid them out and immediately I was reminded of the photos Stephen had taken while in Israel.  The colors reminded me of the colors at the dig site - the rocks, the dirt, the Dead Sea, the sunrises and sunsets, and the blue, blue sky.  The collecting of the fabrics had actually started before Stephen took that trip.  It was just "a God thing" - something that God had planned before we knew about the trip.  The quilt was on display along with some photos printed and framed for Stephen to hang in his bedroom where the quilt will be used.

It was nice for our family to start getting to know Kristina's family.  Everyone loved them at once.  They are kind, thoughtful people and we look forward to spending time together in years to come.

 Norman and Joe Bob at the grill.

Ron, Norman, and my brother-in-law, Joe Bob manned the grill and cooked the hamburgers.  We had hamburgers, and cheese burgers with all the fixings, chips and dips, salads, and beans.  For dessert we had homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade strawberry sherbet as well as watermelon brought by one of Stephen's friends.  He loves watermelon.  Someone knows him well.  We had homemade cookies that I had made as well as some made by Kristina's mom.

Ron and Kristina at the grill

The party went well and we all had a good time.  As always, I had way too much food, but I would rather have too much than too little.  Most of the leftovers went home with Stephen, so he should be able to save on his groceries this week.

I thought I would show you the table decor on one table.  In the center of each table was one of the stacks of books with a graduation cap tucked in by the bow. 

I have a lot of small glass picture frames that I use for various events (Winter Texan banquets, etc.) and I had put photos from Stephen's Israel trip in the frames.  Then the knives, forks, and spoons were rolled in the napkins with a black ribbon to hold them in place and from the ribbon hung a miniature black tassel.  There were sparkle 2014 confetti pieces scattered along with ones of diplomas, stars, tassels, etc.

At each place was a coffee cup with a bag of party mints for each guest to take home.  On each cup was the scripture: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11.  I challenged our guests to take an extra cup and to commit to give it away to someone who might be struggling and would be helped by knowing that God has a plan for their life.  Most of the guests took an extra.  I hope to hear stories of how God leads them to share the cups.  

It took a while to clean and load up everything and it was close to midnight when we returned to the hotel.  It was nice to go to the room and have the card keys work!!!

Stephen with Janet and Joe Bob, our gracious, generous hosts.  

They made the evening a wonderful success.

 Left to right: Stephen, Joe Bob, Janet, Janet's son John, Vickey, Bob, Linda (me), David, and Ron.  My mom, Betty Landreth is in the front in the chair.

As the party was ending everyone kept thinking of other photos that we needed
 to take.   Here, I was serving ice cream to Kristina's mother, Omeda.

These photos were in the entry way:  The first is Stephen's first year in school.   Then Stephen's graduation from Kindergarten at First Baptist, Brownsville.  Next, graduating from Science Academy in Mercedes (high school) , and graduating from Texas A&M University.