Category Archives: Celebrations

Remembering Thanksgiving 2019

Leave a reply

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy.  They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

Today I was looking through photos from last year’s Thanksgiving celebration at my house.  We sure had a houseful of family over and I couldn’t have been more pleased.  I remember having the head count finalized (or so I thought) several days before Thanksgiving and every day Eddie would tell me two more people were coming.  I think he thought I was getting irritated but I was secretly delighted.  I love a full house during the holidays, especially Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving has always been that holiday for me that was most special.  I mean, what could be better than tons of food, pie, wine and family and friends hanging out all afternoon?  It’s a carryover from my mother and how she would prepare for Thanksgiving each year when I was growing up.  Back when we lived in Chicago, it would be our immediate family, my grandparents (mom’s parents) and then mom would invite several of her friends over so they would have family to be with.  The joke was that if mom heard of someone on the street corner that didn’t have a place to eat turkey, she would invite them over!  Once my parents moved to Alabama, this became the gathering place and then when Eddie and I built our house in Hoover, our home became the place we would celebrate.  It was the one time every year when my parents and my sisters with their husbands and kids were all together.  As our families grew and the kids grew up, it was more difficult to get everyone together here in Alabama and my sisters began having their own family celebrations in their home states.  Times change and we have to change with them…

Brother-in-law Terry (TO) with daughters Kate and TJ and grandson Cooper

When I think about our Zuniga-Odom Thanksgiving last year, I can see changes coming once again.  My brother-in-law, Terry has permanently moved to Orange Beach this year.  Just recently, his daughter Kate, along with hubby David and their son, Cooper have moved near Terry.  And even more recently, daughter TJ and hubby Matt are planning a move to Pensacola.  Taking the annual “cousin” picture is getting a little more difficult.  I know we will all get together for holidays in the future but it will take a little more planning!  

Having my sister, Kanista home for Thanksgiving last year felt like old times.

Thinking back to last year…it was just so perfect.  The weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed being outside. We spread out around four rooms in the house and the adult kids ended up around the table on the deck and had a great time.  I even tried out two new recipes on the family, which is something that I don’t typically tackle!  My cranberry sauce and corn souffle were well received, much to my pleasure! In addition to the Odom/Harkins/O’Reilly families being present, I was so happy to have my baby sister, Kanista and her husband Ken with us too.  That was the icing on the cake for me personally.  My favorite memory though is of my super sweet helper, great-nephew Samuel, who made it his mission to make sure every family member filled out a leaf for the Thankful Tree.  

Change is inevitable and I see it happening more and more in our family.  Holidays are changing too and I’m trying to be flexible!  Traditions will change too but the thing that gives me hope is when I hear my children talk about wanting to maintain certain traditions that they’ve been a part of or shift them slightly to make sure they continue.  This makes my heart happy. 

But for a few moments today, I want to remember Thanksgiving 2019 and all the family that gathered together and what a special day that was.  So thankful to have these wonderful memories…especially this year.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Once Upon a Time We Met – 39 Years Later

Leave a reply

Me and Eddie – attending a wedding our first year of dating.

…the story continues…

Four years ago, I blogged about the night my husband Eddie and I met.  It was Veterans Day eve 1982 and we met at a work happy hour and ever since then we’ve celebrated this momentous meeting.  It’s always a fun reminder of where we started and a look at where we are today. 

Dancing at a family wedding last year

This year we went through an exciting change as a couple.  Eddie retired on August 1.  He had planned to retire earlier in the year but stayed on at work a little longer due to the pandemic.  About the time he retired, I was preparing to go back to work for 13 weeks with the United Way of Central Alabama’s annual fundraising campaign.  Eddie got to experience a little of what I experienced when I retired three years ago, ahead of our original schedule.  It’s hard to believe that we had both planned to retire together in June 2021.  But here we are now…both retired and ready for phase three of our lives together.

Enjoying the Apollo Ball this year at Boutwell Auditorium

When we go out to dinner tonight, I know we will talk about where and how it all started between us.  We will reminisce about the early days together, getting married and our early years together, having our family, building our home in Hoover, watching the kids grow up, countless soccer and softball games, band concerts, choir concerts, show choir concerts, girl scouts, boy scouts and everything else our kids were involved in over the years.  We will talk a little about our careers and how quickly work life went by…even though at the time it seemed like retirement would never arrive!  Most importantly, we will talk about what is next, where we will travel, home projects we have been wanting to complete, new hobbies we are excited to try and most importantly, how often we can be with our first baby grand. We always have a lot to talk about and thankfully, Eddie has a memory like an elephant so I count on him to keep me straight on events and dates.  He may have all of these details in his head but I take photos of everything so together we make quite the pair! 

Last year we headed to Firebirds for an early dinner and sat outside by the fire.  We had the entire patio to ourselves too.  Maybe it was because we went so early?  I remember telling Eddie we must have looked like we were there for the senior specials!  We shared some wine and an assortment of appetizers and then went home to enjoy a bottle of champagne.  It was a perfect evening.

Last year (2019) celebrating our “anniversary” at Firebirds
Cheers to 38 years (in 2019)
Can’t go wrong with appetizers at Firebirds!
We love a good glass of Meiomi sparking!
Cheers to the 38th anniversary of when we first met!
A kiss for him…
and a kiss for her…

I’m not sure where we will celebrate this evening.  I may let Eddie pick the place this year since he’s had a bit of a rough week and I’ll be driving us wherever we go anyway!  You see, Eddie had a bit of a chainsaw accident last week that required stiches and a foot boot.  You can bet we will be talking about that unfortunate incident at dinner too…and I may be blogging about it later! But I’ll let him make it up to me on January 4th for our 35th wedding anniversary…

Meanwhile, happy “first” anniversary sweetheart!

Why I Love Holiday Tablescapes

Leave a reply

Thanksgiving Dining Room table 2020

My dining room table is set and ready for Thanksgiving!  This time of year, I’m working out of so many storage boxes for my dining room décor.  I start in October with a Halloween setting.  Then on October 31st, I begin the transition to Day of the Dead, including my ofrenda (altar) on my buffet with a few touches on the dining room table.  Finally, after letting my altar stay up through the weekend – depending on when Day of the Dead falls on the calendar – I take everything down the first weekend in November to prepare for Thanksgiving.

I’ve had friends ask me why I go to all this trouble to decorate for every holiday.  Honestly, I can look back on when I was growing up and see how special my mother made everything for me and my sisters.  She worked at a Hallmark store when I was in high school and would bring home some of the cutest holiday related items to decorate the house and for us to enjoy.  As a mother, I took that example and always tried to find the best ways to make holidays festive for my husband, kids and extended family.

When Eddie and I built our house in Hoover, AL, it quickly became the place where our extended family gathered to celebrate the holidays.  We have plenty of room, live on a cul de sac, which was great when our kids were little, and the adults would enjoy the deck.  With everyone scattered around the house, it was fun to add little holiday touches here and there. 

Charlie’s candle and Anna Marie’s tent prayer from their kindergarten years

Over the 27 years we’ve lived in our house, I’ve naturally changed things out.  When my kids were little, the table was set a little more for them.  As they got older, the table décor grew up too.  Some things remain constant though.  For instance, for Thanksgiving we always display a Thanksgiving candle my son Charlie made when he was in kindergarten.  Next to the candle, we always display a Thanksgiving prayer tent card that my daughter, Anna Marie cut out and taped together. 

Several years back, my mother gave me a few of those items I mentioned we had when I was growing up.  Mom said since we were always at my house it just made sense for me to have them for us all to enjoy.  She had a straw-like turkey she used to display on her dining room table and it now graces my dining room buffet along with a wooden Native American couple and a wooden pilgrim couple.  Using these pieces every year takes me back to Thanksgivings in the suburbs of Chicago.  I do get pretty nostalgic over the holidays these days.  I blame my age and the fact that Eddie and I are empty nesters!

Dining room buffet – the “home” garland was added this year to the mirror
Pilgrim couple and turkey from my mom’s decorating collection
Native American couple from my mom – I found the pumpkin several years ago at Hobby Lobby
The dining room buffet decor – the “family” board is something I found at Target a few years ago. Target always has some great decorating items in their Dollar Section!

You can say that decorating and creating holiday tablescapes is a way for me to stay connected to the wonderful memories of the past.  I do find myself telling my kids the same stories over and over and while I’m sure they get tired of hearing them I’m happy that they listen and humor me.  I expect that when they all have children of their own, they will repeat these stories and they’ll understand why I keep retelling them. 

Meanwhile, here are some photos of my Thanksgiving table this year and a few other decorations around my home. 

Thanksgiving table 2020
Found these old fashioned postcards at World Market many moons ago. I like to use them as napkin rings!
Dining room table centerpiece
This book of Grace is really beautiful. The corn was a bargain! I found at the thrift store with the original price tags and lets just say they were a steal!
I’m always on the lookout for fun cocktail napkins and wine stoppers too!
My teacart decor – the turkey was a great find at the thrift store. The nutcrackers are from Target in 2012.
I had this decor on the dining room table for Halloween. It has transitioned to the living room coffee table and I added some more fall items to the mix
Front door decor! I’ve been using this wreath and swag since 2012. I’ve been wanting to update but then I put the wreath on the door and I fall in love with it all over again!
I got the wreath and swag from Michaels during one of their “after” holiday sales.
Holiday floral picks come in handy. When I see something I like I get it and will eventually use like I did with these four lanterns last year.
Finished product…
Decorating the deck and hoping for great weather over Thanksgiving!
My final touch is always adding my Designs by Lolita wine glasses based on the holiday theme. These makes me happy!

My Senior Prom (Part 2)

Leave a reply

Celebrating my Senior Prom birthday with my handsome husband! Cheers to 60 years!!!

This is Part Two of a two part story of my 60th birthday party celebration in 2019.

“You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

Dance floor ready with balloons!

The last week of party prep, Eddie was really able to help with a number of things, including completing our 50s couple look by buying a white tux jacket online! He helped get the wine and beer bought and anything else bar related. One huge item he helped with the day of the event was blowing up gold and black balloons! Boy! That was a dizzying task! We really needed to have those blown up before heading to Miami Café. Then we had to fit them into the car with everything else!!!  These balloons covered the floor in the restaurant and were the last decorations we set up for the party.

I headed down to Miami Café about 4 hours before the party ready to decorate! My prom committee – Denise and Vanessa – and later, Cristina and my daughter, Emily, joined in to help get the restaurant party ready. This included tablecloths, centerpieces and getting the photo backdrop done. We added assorted yearbooks as décor in the restaurants front windows in keeping with the theme.

Eddie pouring up some tasty refreshments!
Eddie had a blast tending bar for everyone!
Eddie decided to provide a few bottles of bourbon for the gang.
Wine selection for the party –

Eddie arrived a few hours beforehand to set up the bar. We had agreed only to have beer and wine and a signature Tito’s cocktail. But Eddie decided to bring some bourbon from his collection and boy was that a hit! He proceeded to set up the bar displaying everything we had. Eddie played bartender for most of the night and had a blast!

Corsage table courtesy of Denise Koch!
Denise created beautiful corsages for all my party guests!

Denise told me back in January she wanted to create a corsage table for my guests to choose from. Being the event planner extraordinaire that she is, she not only created wrist,  lapel corsages and boutonnières, she even put them in plastic containers. They were all so beautiful and I know it took a lot of time to pull together. This was such a special part of the party to me.

Still laughing about Chris’ outfit!!!
These two guys stood out in their white tuxedo jackets!
Me realizing this person with the long black hair and beard is Chris Miller!
With Chris and his fiance, Chris
Party on people!!!

Right at 7 p.m. the guests started arriving…and what fun it was to see everyone all dressed up and really getting into the theme of the party! I found out that night, that so many of my guests did not attend their own proms, so they were really doing it up right that night. There were a few who REALLY went over the top, like my friend Chris Miller. I saw him walking in but I didn’t recognize him. In fact, I thought he was walking through the restaurant to see the owner, Luis. As he got closer to me, I realized who it was and I couldn’t stop laughing! He came dressed in full on 70s with a black rock star hair and he even dyed his beard to complete the look! Every time I look at any photo of Chris from my party I literally laugh out loud!

With Marie and her duct tape dress!
Marie Packer and Donna Harkins

A close second to Chris was my friend Marie.  She made her dress out of orange, white and gray duct tape! I couldn’t tell what she was wearing until I got closer and I was completely floored at how great it looked! In the 2001, Duck Tape brand duct tape started a prom competition awarding scholarships to the best duct tape prom dress. I swear, Marie would have won had she been in high school at that time! She even wore a roll of tape as a bangle bracelet!

Steve and Valorie Parrish
Miguel Vilchez, Willie and Frances Chriesman
Willie gets a corsage from Denise
Cristina Almanza, Emily Redmond, me, Vanessa Vargas and Chris Miller
Chris Miller, me and Chris Noland
Kathy and Ron Fish
Chris and Vanessa
Carlos Aleman, me, Isabel Rubio and WIllie Chriesman – HICA friends
Shannon Simril, Emily and me
Boondocks Girls photo
Chris and Chris
Eily Redmond
Jerrod Brown and Cristina Almanza
Shannon and Emily
Tammy and Mac
With Frances and Willie Chriesman
With Kate and David
With Carlos Aleman
With Tina Savas and Benga Harrison
With Tina Savas – she got this dress at the thrift store for $8! Love her style!
Sherree and Kip Wright
Dancing with my boy!

Luis brought out his incredible food – jerk chicken, rice and beansas the crowd grew and even added some Cuban sandwiches to the buffet. I was all over those! Everyone took full advantage of the photo backdrop and gave their best cheesy prom poses. Vanessa and Cristina served as official photographers until Cristina’s boyfriend Jerrod (a professional photographer!) arrived. I’m usually the person taking the photos so it was a little strange handing off my camera to someone else. I definitely had fun the next day looking through all the photos!

Loved thanking my friends and family for coming to celebrate my birthday
Grabbing some of Luis Delgado’s fabulous food! Can’t believe I didn’t get a photo of everything!!!
Making sure my hubby got fed!
Emily serves as MC during the prom king and queen coronation
Prom King Eddie
Vanessa helps with the Prom Queen coronation!
Getting my sash!
A hug for the Prom King
First dance…to Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect”
First dance…
My guests join in for the first dance…

Once everyone was fed, it was time to crown the prom king and queen. My daughter, Emily, served as the MC during this portion of the party. Eddie was crowned prom king. Then I was crowned prom queen, as a few of my friends commented that the voting was fixed. Of course, there wasn’t any voting so the joke was on them! (Ha-ha…I love my friends and this is so typical!) DJ Rod quickly began playing our first dance song, Ed Sheeran’s, “Perfect.” It was at this point that I really thought I was going to cry. Everything had turned out so perfect and I was just so happy to be celebrating with so many friends and family members. As we danced, Eddie was grinning ear to ear and that made me even happier. We danced a short while together when I called everyone to join us on the dance floor, and they did…

I used my new Designs by Lolita “Sixty is Sassy” wine glass for the evening!

Sadly, my mother couldn’t be at the party because she had been sick all week. We were both disappointed but I felt like she was with me because I was able to wear a rhinestone bracelet she wore to her senior prom in 1956. I also brought along my “60 and Sassy” Lolita wine glass to use at the party because Designs by Lolita creates a wine glass for every occasion – I kid you not!

Louise’s Cake was enjoyed by everyone!  So much so that we didn’t have anything left over!!!  Emily Redmond helped with the cake and making sure everyone got a slice.  You really can’t go wrong with cakes from this great little shop in Hoover.  As I’ve said before, we get all our Zuniga-Odom special occasion cakes from this bakery.

 

Emily lights the candles!
Really have no idea what I was saying here!!!
Make that wish!
Happy 60th birthday and senior prom!

I wish I could post all the photos that were taken that night.  Reliving the party through these photos always puts a huge smile on my face and brings back great memories.  My friends and family still talk about this party and I’m so glad they had a memorable time as well.  Here are a few more photos and I dare you not to smile as you go through them!

 

Chris and Vanessa
Sherree and Kip Wright

My Senior Prom (Part 1)

Leave a reply

This is Part One of a two part story of my 60th birthday party celebration in 2019.

“All of your life you think 60 is ancient, and all of a sudden, you find you’re 60 and you don’t really feel that different. I feel stronger and more engaged. This is the best time of my life.” ~ Glenn Close

Last year I turned 60…

It seemed to happen so quickly too! I mean, wasn’t it just a few years ago that I was being surprised by my husband and kids with a 50th birthday party at La Brisa restaurant in Hoover? Four years prior, I had surprised my husband Eddie with a 60th birthday party at our house. It was James Bond themed but instead of Agent 007, he was Agent 060! I had a tuxedo cake and Eddie’s face superimposed on several James Bond movie posters. We had so much fun! So, as my 60th was approaching, Eddie wasn’t sure what to plan and worried he didn’t have time due to his work schedule either. I told him I would take care of it and he was clearly relieved!!!

I started thinking about a party theme quite a while ago. There was a story about a retirement home having a “senior prom” for their residents and that’s when the idea hit me…why not have a senior prom party??? I mean, when you’re 60, isn’t that when a lot of the senior discounts kick in? And on top of all that, I didn’t go to my own high school senior prom so this was my chance to have one, right?!

I floated the idea to a few friends and they all thought it was terrific! So, now I just needed to get the party planned. I got an early start, as I said. I started looking through Pinterest and trying to think creatively about how to do this. My sweet friend, Denise Koch, an event planner extraordinaire, offered help and ideas and even gave me a book to order supplies and decorations. So, I had a good start on the planning and then I just stopped. I had so much going on during the fall of 2018 and quite a number of event commitments over the first few months of 2019 that I just started running out of time. I also began thinking it was a little weird to throw my own birthday party even though my husband was fully supportive…it just felt a little odd.

That’s when my friends, Denise and Vanessa, lit a fire under me! This was January 17, 2019 and I was doubting whether I had enough time to get it all pulled together. But in true form, they started throwing out suggestions right and left and helped me set things in motion. It was too late to have the party on Saturday, Feb 16th, since my birthday is February 17th, so I decided to have it on Saturday, March 2nd. My “prom committee” agreed this was a good move.

The hardest decision was finding a venue to have my party. I didn’t need anything huge but I did want enough space for about 50 to 60 people to dance and spread out. Vanessa suggested our friend, Luis Delgado’s Miami Fusion Café in downtown Birmingham. I met with Luis and Samantha Delgado to book the date and arranged for Luis to cater the party with his delicious Caribbean style food. The restaurant had the perfect décor for my party colors too with their original black and gold art deco floors!

After securing the venue, I was able to get the invitations created and printed. I decided to do them myself at home and used my senior photo from 1976. In the invitation, I asked everyone to come to the party dressed for prom in the decade of their choice. I toyed with the idea of making it a 1970s prom, since that’s the year I graduated, but decided to leave it up to my guests to choose their preferred decade and it proved to be a good move!

DJ Rod brought some great dance and popular prom themed music throughout the decades to my party!
Posing with DJ Rod right before the music started!
For music, I wanted a DJ so we could have an array of music across the decades and allow people to make requests. Vanessa put me in touch with DJ Rod who played at Fiesta the year before. He was wonderful to work with and really provided the perfect soundtrack for the party. I added a few “prom” songs from the decades which he weaved into his set and it was great for dancing…and my guests DID DANCE!

My Teri Jon prom dress found at Second Hand Rose consignment shop in Cahaba Heights
Dress details!
Love the way the dress is cut and the way it flowed!
This bracelet belonged to my mother from high school. I loved wearing it for my party!
These are the I.N.C. earrings I wore for the party – found them at Macys
At this point, it was Feb 20th – a week and a half before the party, and I didn’t have any idea what I was going to wear. While I graduated high school in the 70s, I had more of a 1950s idea in mind for myself. But at this late date, I was going to go with whatever I could find! I got an early start on Feb 20th and figured I would head to a few thrift stores and then a consignment store I had been to years ago when my girls were in high school and college and looking for formal dresses. I just knew I would find something there but when I drove up, the place no longer existed!!! I was shocked and disappointed. So I did a quick google search and found another place nearby, but that place had gone out of business too. Now I was starting to panic. Then I remembered Second Hand Rose in Cahaba Heights and decided to try them. There wasn’t anything spectacular in the formal section. I tried on a few dresses but they just didn’t work. I was starting to give up when I looked through the regular dress rack and found “the dress!” It was a quarter length black and deep blue Terri John dress! It was the perfect fit too! I texted a photo to my daughter Emily, and she loved it!!! She added that I needed some “sparkly” shoes to go with it to complete the look.

Shiny accessories…
The Michael Kors silver “shiny” shoes I lucked up on at Belk!
So off I went to Belk, which was nearby, to look for shoes. I spotted some Michael Kors sparkly gold shoes with a low heel which got my attention. Then I saw the same pair in silver. The silver ones were 60% off! (Now I was excited!!) As I was admiring them, the sales lady came up to me and said “those are the last ones,” and my heart started to sink a bit. But then she added, “They’re a 9-1/2.” I looked at her in disbelief and actually said, “are you kidding me???!!!” That’s my size!!! She ran off to get the other shoe and when I tried them both on, I felt a little like Cinderella. Seriously, I almost cried when I paid for them. My outfit was complete after a roller coaster day of shopping!

Every good party has to have a good hashtag!
I worked on blowing up a few myself but I got a little dizzy!!
Eddie helped blow up the black and gold balloons for the dance floor
Working on the cheesy photo backdrop – Vanessa and Cristina make it work!
Photo backdrop is ready!
Dance floor ready with balloons!
DJ Rod set up on the left side of the restaurant next to the food buffet.
We ordered some helium balloons for the tables
My gorgeous cake from Louises Cakes in Hoover. I found the “sixty” along with candles at Hobby Lobby.
Tables are set with centerpieces…
My focus shifted to making sure I had all the right party decorations and the perfect cake. I picked up a number of things from Dollar Tree, Party City and thrift stores. I also ordered from Amazon. I envisioned a simple but elegant venue throughout except for the cheesy photo booth in the background! Our family always gets our special occasion cakes from Louise’s Cakes in Hoover and they always impress. I took a few photos of what I wanted and together we created my perfect elegant cake. I had two layers – the bottom was white and the top gold with the gold on top appearing to drip to the bottom. It was beautiful and chocolaty delicious!!!

Part two – Party setup and the celebration begins!

Ready for my party guests to arrive!
I used my new Designs by Lolita “Sixty is Sassy” wine glass for the evening!