Our Golden Wedding Celebrations

Just a few non-too invasive photos of our Golden Wedding celebration. Considering so many people over the last couple of weeks had been ill with colds, flu, bugs (I have never known a winter like it)and the treacherous road conditions of snow and ice, all our guests made it to the party - 40 in all.

Our daughter Jane organised and planned everything and she and our son Peter ( with a little help from a couple of friends) prepared everything on the day. Peter and Jane also paid for all of it. We were also blessed to have the on-line food delivery arrive on time as due to the weather there were cancellations.So thank you so much Jane and Peter - you are stars!

Having decorated the house the food preparation began. As guests arrived there were delicious minature finger foods like Brie and Cranberry Filo parcels, Beef Wellingtons, Shepherds Pies and more. The main meal was a delicious buffet followed by minature deserts. Chocolate cups filled with various creams and fresh fruits, Pastry Spoons filled with same, and Cranberry, Almond and Fruit tarts. Later in the evening there was Champagne and Wedding cake.

Oliver who had never stayed up late before thoroughly enjoyed himself being the 'doorman', opening the front door for each guest. As each group of guests arrived he would run to me and say 'Grandma, you have more friends' which eventually turned into 'Grandma, you have lots of friends'. After the speeches there were lots of 'fire cracker poppers' after which Oliver came to me with some concern and said, 'Grandma, the people have made a big mess'. Eleven PM found him with a dustpan and brush having great fun clearing some of it up.

We received some nice presents (not something we had expected)but will mention just two. A number of local friends had collected together and gave us a voucher to stay in our favourite hotel on the beach in Aldeburgh. Looking forward to going sometime in the Spring as at present the whole place is being refurbished so that is an added bonus. We also received a voucher for high tea for two at a very nice Christian restaurant in the countryside. Another fun gift was a 'Golden Wedding' rose bush.

Here we are attempting to cut the cake alongside photos of our original wedding cake and our 40th anniversary cake.

Alan seen here giving his speech

I'm recounting how I first met Alan and how we spent our first year on a ship at sea, to the amusement of everyone

The toast

The card I made for Alan

The following day we had our House Church Christmas party followed by Carol Singing in the neighbourhood (last post) then as the snow began to thaw we had a very heavy overnight frost and we woke to a frozen wonderland seen here in the garden.

I had thought that our time between our anniversary and Christmas was going to be quite quiet and uneventful but that was not so. As the weather deteriorated even further it made everything an effort and there were elderly neighbours to help out. There was so much disruption everywhere. Shopping entailed long queues to get into car parks and then difficulty finding a space followed by slipping and sliding everywhere. Yesterday we had torrential rain which froze immediately it hit the ground so it felt like we were walking on an ice rink. Snow is nice but a mixture of snow, frost and ice and rain is not. The authorities did their best but the weather kept catching up with them. I also found it difficult to get into the Christmas mode having been so taken up with our anniversary. My tree did not go up until last evening, the 23rd.

Frost has a completely different look to the snow





Shrubs outlined in frost






Nearly there. Looking forward to having our son spend Christmas Day and Boxing Day when Jane and family will be joining us too. It's her in-laws turn for Christmas Day this year. I'll take the opportunity to wish all my readers and blogging friends a Very Happy Christmas and a Very Blessed New Year. I'm planning to visit everyone over the holidays.