Happy Birthday Mom (Part 2)

As promised, here's the post on my mom's birthday celebration. We had to celebrate her 70th birthday a day later to accommodate those who are not from town. I had two surprises for my mom. First, I got her a flower-cum-fruit basket, specially ordered from a florist to be delivered on the day of her birthday. I've never done this before, and she never expected her rebellious and stubborn son to do something this noble. I figured, she's been there for me from the time I got the divorce (especially) till now, and she's been suffering emotionally too. Therefore, I did what was right. I made that choice to make her happy on her birthday - and she was happy to receive it.

Flowers and fruit for mom

Meaningful words carefully chosen

Here's the second surprise. My siblings and I wanted something special. What I did was I tried to insist that all her sisters come for this celebration to give her a surprise. Well, only one could make it as the others had to be away that day. To fill the void, I included other relatives from KL and Seremban. They came just before dinner. There were a few exchanges of phone calls between me and my aunt to ensure they arrived before my mom did. It went well. I didn't want to have it at a hotel - that's too common, so I made reservation for 14 pax at a bistro instead.

The Chosen One - good ambience

The birthday girl finally arrived at about 7:15 PM, and was so surprised to see her sister and relatives there. There were hugs and greetings. It was nice :)

Arrival of the birthday girl, hugging her youngest sister.
It was a big surprise for her.

I also instructed my brother to get her a birthday cake a couple of hours earlier.  Gosh, I almost forgot about it as my mind hasn't been stable lately with work and other personal stuff to think of. My brother got a cake and I told him to get seven candles to represent her age.

The Food

We ordered ala carte, so it took a while for all of us to decide what to order, but I agreed to have the chef's recommendation (below) for all of us:

House Specialty
Seafood Platter: lobster, oysters, slices of salmon etc.

There was plenty of food in the end till we filled ourselves to the brim, but there was wastage too because I "cleverly" ordered two seafood platters; I didn't expect the others to order heavy meals too. Never mind, as long as everyone's happy there.

The Atmosphere

One word sums it all: electrifying. Everyone was chatting and playing with my little nephew, and I was busy taking photos and experimenting with my camera (missing some good shots in the process). The waiter was helpful too, and he helped us take a snapshot of the entire group.

I call this eating to order - let's eat!

The in-house entertainer singing the Happy Birthday song
That's a surprise to me too as I didn't ask for it :-)

The whole gang - all 14 of us
(I'm somewhere there)

The Verdict

It was a first for me organising a birthday event almost all on my own from making the reservation to making sure that guests arrived before my mom did. Credit goes to my brother too for reminding me a few things and helping out a bit. I'm glad it turned out well. Food was abundant, but not everyone liked the taste. A bowl of "laksa" was wasted. My heart sank a bit when I saw wasted food. Either the guests had a very small appetite, were too picky or the food was just not up to the mark. All guests went home after dinner including those who came from out of town. The price? That doesn't matter. What matters most is that mom had a great time.

Let's see what we have in store for my parents next year.