The last I've seen Mom and Dad was a few days after this picture was taken. We'd gone to the Ol' South Pancake House for breakfast. After breakfast I led them back on to the I-30 freeway and waved them goodbye as they headed west towards Phoenix and their Phoenix suburb location of Sun Lake.
Today is my Dad's 80th birthday. That is a rather significant birthday. I remember like it was yesterday the surprise birthday party from my Grandma Vera's 80th, up in Lynden.
Lynden is about 5 miles south of the Canadian border for you non-Northwesterners reading this. My Mom and Dad grew up in the Lynden zone. It is a Dutch dominated town.
I remember Mom and me going up to Lynden to get Grandma's place ready for her surprise party while a cousin kept Grandma occupied. It was a rather large party.
I'd assumed I'd be getting informed that I needed to be in Phoenix for a birthday party for my Dad today. But, a few weeks ago my Mom told me they wanted no party. And, so no party will there be.
Or so Mom and Dad have been led to believe.
Today is the annual Christmas Party for the managers of several dozen McDonald's in the Phoenix area. My Mom and Dad have gone to the annual McDonald's Christmas Party previously, and they are doing so again today.
What Mom and Dad do not know is that their McDonald's family is also going to be throwing my Dad an 80th Birthday Party today. With a cake. And, I assume, an awful lot of candles.
Of my siblings only one will be at Dad's 80th Birthday Party. My sister Jackie. The others, including me, will be phoning in their Happy Birthday Dad messages.
