Thirty-One Years

My husband is a creature of habit. He is steady and faithful, in stark, beautiful contrast to my desire for change and variety. Every year in October he wants the same birthday party: our backyard, a fire pit, warm soup, and friends.

You've seen the party before (Here is 2014 for example), and this year, we threw him the same party, but with a shifted focus. Typically we throw out some card tables and camp chairs. Now that our home mortgage is paid off, we were willing to put a little more money into the party itself, and our recent mind shift about God's hand in the beauty of the seasons aided our conviction that we can glorify God by celebrating His seasonal gifts. We decided to name the night "An Evening in Autumn." Matt has always had a practical and functional mindset, while I tend to lean more towards beauty, regardless of practicality. We're a good balance for each other.

This year we rented a neighbor's antique truck, filled it with straw bales, and hung up a hand-painted birthday banner. Matt sewed together Harbor Freight Canvases to make a beautiful tent, we brought out our dining room table and all of our chairs, decorating an autumn tablescape with beeswax candles, thrifted wicker placemats, and farmer's market heirloom pumpkins.

To make a photo-op, we borrowed a neighbor's porch swing and set up a "room" by opening our garage door and hanging a couple of those same canvases as a backdrop. There was a wheelbarrow and some galvanized washtubs full of ice and sparkling drinks/sodas, and hot chocolate and chai to keep us cozy as the sun slipped away. I put out a wardrobe full of blankets to use by the fire pit, where we roasted nuts in a cast-iron for people to take home, and almost a hundred people came with baskets of bread, crock-pots of soup, and enough laughter and warm conversation to last the night.

It was my favorite of Matt's birthday parties, and I hope we can repeat An Evening in Autumn in a variety of ways for years to come!