You're Only 80 Once

Yesterday was my Grandpa's 80th birthday we celebrate with a big surprise party. The best part of it was that my dad's cousin Hanne and her 11-year-old son Aleksander flew in from Norway to be there as part of the surprise. Hanne is my Grandpa's neice and they are really close. "When Hanne called me this morning I thought she was in Oslo!" Grandpa said.

It was standing room only, about 100 people. Lots of family and friends I've seen since I was a little kid, and even though I don't know all their names I loved being surrounded by all the familiar faces. My aunts put together a scrapbook of family pictures and a list of "80 Things We Love About You," such as, "We like how you are always singing a little song...how you taught us to always give 100%...your twinkling blue eyes...your stories of childhood during the war...that you never have a bad hair day (it's true!)...."

My aunt Heidi had a couple of her friends show up in Viking costumes as entertainment, since my grandpa is Norwegian. They tried faking Norwegian accents, "Ver is de birsday boy?"and they gave him a special present of sardines, which he actually loves, believe it or not. Haha! I wish I had it on video, maybe I can get it from Anika...

It was a fun night catching up with Hanne and just being with family. Oh, and eating marzipan cake, of course!