40th Wedding Anniversary

My brother and I hosted a 40th wedding anniversary for my parents at Maggiano's Italian Restaurant this weekend. It was grand. My dad's sister, Aunt Kathy, my favorite aunt in the whole-wide world came. It was awesome of her to come up from Florida. My brother flew in from LA to spend the weekend with us as well. We had close to 30 guests to celebrate this special time with us.

The place was great and the food was fantastic. We toasted my parents and thanked them for all their love and support. Then my mom got up and toasted my dad. She spoke of the good times, but focused on the bad times. The times of financial struggle, of losing loved ones, of the hardships they faced and told us all that it was not the good times that kept them together. The good times were the easy times. She reminded us that when thing are horrible or tough, it's easy to give up. She told us that the hardest parts in her life were losing loved ones both young and old, she knew that when he held her and she put her head on his heart - everything would be okay, cause they still had each other. There wasn't a dry eye in the house after she was done. My dad, a man of few words, returned the favor. I'm so proud of them. My family is lucky to have them.

But isn't there a negative in these types of things? Well, here's mine. We invited a ton of folks. Mostly from out of town. I'm okay and totally understand they can't come. I even expected it and invited mostly as a courtesy. But what I don't appreciate or expect are the few local family members that do not RSVP or RSVP and then call at 4 pm the day of the event and say you can't come (after I paid for you). At this point it's NOT even about the money, it's about the lack of respect for my parents. And to that - I won't be inviting any of them again. !!!!!!! It's their loss.