The Red Hat Society!

My older sister, Sandy, is now of the eligible age (or at least will be by Saturday) to join the ranks of the Red Hat Society! She turns the big "50" soon and to celebrate, her husband and children invited her friends and family to surprise her with a party last night.

Gary, her husband, wrote on the invitation that he wanted to honor Sandy with the victor's crown (a token of public honor) for her service to Christ all these years. Guests were encouraged to write a letter to Sandy sharing the ways in which they see Sandy honoring Christ with her life. In keeping with the theme, Gary ordered a beautiful lavendar crown of real flowers for her to wear. He also enlisted the help of a long-time friend, Ellen, to buy, coordinate and oversee the creation of grapevine wreaths for the guests to make and take home. Providentially, he found a 60 to 90% off sale at craft store going out of business! The once $6.00 a piece wreaths only cost 60 cents! Now that's a bargain!

This was my contribution in lieu of a letter. I did a digital scrapbook page with pictures of us as children. I like using digital scrapbooking, but I sure hope I get faster with practice, because it took me a looooooooong time to finish just this one layout!

Sandy's daughters, Kim and Karen, took her out to dinner to get her out of the house so that the guests and the rest of the family could set up the party. She sure did look surprised when she walked through the door and saw all the guests. Gary even went so far as to buy a sports balloon to put on the neighbor's mailbox, so that if Sandy wondered why there were SO many cars parked on the street, she would think the neighbor was having the party. LOL

Ellen (an expert on wreath making) set out the wreaths around the table with coordinating accessories and flowers, and guests were allowed to choose which design they wanted to make. Each wreath was a unique work of art, and all of them as unique and beautiful as the guests. It was amazing though, that all those glue guns plugged in at the same time did not cause a power black out in the neighborhood!!

I only recently had heard of the Red Hat Society, a group of ladies who get together for tea and wear red hats and purple to soften the blow of getting "old." The group was inspired by the poem, "Warning," by Jenny Joseph, about a woman who wanted to warn her family & friends of the changes in her behavior once she got old. :o) The Red Hat Society was started "...as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humor and elan."

For more pictures, you can go to this link: Sandy's 50th Birthday