my father in law's 80th turned out to be a great weekend.
we took over the village pub, to the landlord's great delight (normally, it's empty on a saturday lunchtime).
the usual suspects had too much to drink.
the kids had a great time playing darts and making obscene objects out of clay/play putty, whatever you call it.
and i met some remote relatives i'd not had the chance to talk to ever before.
the sweetest moment for me was watching father in law as he viewed the dvd i made for him out of old photos and more recent video clips.
a sort of 'this is your life' but with an ending that suggested there was plenty more scope for a sequel.
but the day ended with him throwing his trivial pursuit counter into the box and going up to bed in disgust because he was struggling to answer questions from the childrens edition...
still, the weekend had a nice atmosphere, he enjoyed himself, and i'm glad i was part of it.
and just to prove that it doesn't matter how old you are, maturity is but a distant dream - here's the birthday card that he liked the most...
subtle, or what? i think you'll need to double click the image to see it full size.
2007-12-04 @ 14:57