Birthday Surprise

As many of you know, my birthday is May 8th.  But only a few of you know that Judy's sister, Joyce, has the same birthday, albeit a decade later than mine.  So we try to celebrate our birthdays together every year.  Only this year there were some reasons to postpone it a bit.  Her son, David, was getting married on May 22nd.  That meant we would be traveling to New Orleans for the wedding, so why not just celebrate both events at the same time.  Plus, Joyce was feeling kinda yucky and our showing up might make it worse.

But in the days just before May 8th, Judy learned that Joyce's husband, Allen, had arranged for a nice private birthday dinner at Murial's, just off Jackson Square in the French Quarter.  Meanwhile, Joyce was feeling a little better, and that was enough encouragement for Judy to say, "Let's go to Murial's and surprise her."  Okay by me, and we started making plans and hotel reservations.

But her illness was sort of up and down so we let Allen in on the plan so he could alert us if there was a last minute change.  She knew nothing about any of this.

So we checked into our hotel and took a cab to the restaurant to wait for their arrival.  We also made arrangements with the hostess to steer them to the bar when they arrived.

So they were met with the hostess saying, "I'm sorry but your table is still being prepared.  Could you please wait a few minutes in the bar."  We saw them coming through the crowd.  And just as Joyce got close, Judy stepped out blocking Joyce's path.  And Joyce had that "How rude!!!" look on her face for a few seconds until it changed to a 'confused' look, and then to pure joy!  It turned out perfect.

We had a great meal, walked around a bit in the French Quarter and rode back with them to our hotel.
The next day the two of them painted Miss Piggy, a concrete statue we gave Joyce for her birthday. I took a couple of naps and enjoyed a little rum, both in a glass and on a plate in the form of Rum Cake.  It was delicious, along with two other cakes.

Then David and Michelle came over to visit, totally unaware that we were there.  Yet another surprise.  Then the conversations shifted to their upcoming wedding.  And that set in motion some shopping and printing that needed to be done.

And then Chase and Sheryl showed up.  Also surprised.  They were married a few months earlier and this was the first time we saw them since the wedding.

We had pulled off the surprise of the century, had fun doing it, and were glad we did it, knowing that we would return in a couple of weeks for David and Michelle's wedding.

Oh, and in spite of her feeling poorly, Joyce was a trooper the entire time.  Perhaps the 'Medicine of Family' being together helped.  Yes.... I'm sure it was that.