June 16 - Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Jan!

Happy birthday to my dad!

I did not have time to post anything this weekend since it was filled with birthday celebrations,...what did you think huh? Jan wanted to organise a bbq for his friends already a long time so this was the perfect occasion. An invitation had been sent out to lots of friends, making a guess that not everybody would be able to attend. So it didn't matter that we invited more people than we could actually seat.

7 friends and 4 children had been confirmed and we did manage to set the table with some squeezing for 13 people. We had forseen 4 pieces of meat per adult, 2 per child, but on the last minute we decided to load up some more meat. We'd put it in the fridge and if we didn't use it , we could freeze it.

We must have had a feeling.... At 7 the doorbell started ringing and our guests were arriving and were enjoying their apperitive in the garden while Jan was baking the meat on the bbq. When we were just waiting for the last couple, the doorbell rang and I already opened with the name of the last guests on the tip of the tongue when I saw other friends there. I really hope that I corrected my amazement quickly enough to happily invite them in. Hmm weird, isn't it a habit anymore to confirm your presence for a dinner party? Oh well, how cool for Jan that there were more friends. We'll just seat the children at the salon table or have them eat before the adults.

When the doorbell rang again, the scenario repeated itself. Even more non-expected friends showed up! I quickly got the kiddies glasses off the table and replaced them with some more wine glasses ;), hopefully before anyone noticed that we had actually planned to seat the children at our table.

We ended up being 15 adults and 4 children and we ate in 2 shifts really but there was loads of food and it was great fun. I could see that Jan was really enjoying himself and I was very happy that so many people came by (and a bit jealous too that that didn't happen last time when I invited a load of my friends to come over). We had not seen some of them in a long time, so it was cool to catch up, to see their children etc... Jan has definitely enjoyed a nice birthday party!

And if you wonder if it is truly the habit in Belgium to show up unexpectedly at dinner parties: well it isn't, but Jan's e-mail didn't ask to confirm and didn't really state that it was a dinner party either. So it was ambigious and some of our guests might have been equally surprised at the set table and the loads of food present! :p.... Haha.