About celebrating and being 65! Serendipity again! and a tough question!

Celebrating my 65th birthday

Last Sunday I turned 65! We celebrated it on the 30th of June for convenience sake. Almost all my brothers and sisters with their offspring were present. It makes a nice family photo, mostly young people. I am in the middle with my husband to my right.

Picture of my big family.

As I told you in  a previous post, my son and his girlfriend graciously offered their garden as location for my party. They didn't only offer the location, they decorated the place with paper lanterns; we ended up eating inside because of the heat:

Garden ready fort he party

And balloons at the entrance!

Balloons welcome the guests

My lucky star, 65 wasn't lacking:

The first guest are arriving: my daughter with husband and son, my sister with husband, daughter with boyfriend:

First guests overcoming the heat!

And here is my niece: she is high pregnant; how courageous of here to attend. The birth was expected for the 1 st of July. That would have been wonderful: a little cousin born the same day as me. But then she couldn't have attend my party. We are 4 days later when publishing this post, still no news.

My fearless high pregnant  niece.

At about 13.00 we are complete and my eldest brother prepared a speech:

My big brother is giving a speech.

Finally we are eating: everybody was famished and the buffet was halved in no time. Too bad I didn't think about taking pictures of the buffet. You can read what we had on the buffet in this post I you want recipes: you can request them by emailing me. We were 28 people. Most people have left to sit outside in the shade.

We are eating inside to escape the heat. 

A small serendipity event

And after a nice meal, a coffee is "de rigueuer". In the above mentioned previous post, I spoke about my worry of not having a coffee machine. I was on the border of ordering a machine but something hold me back and then I got a mail from my benefactor that she had a coffee machine. Wow, this was great: buying is simple, storing when you don't need the thing is a problem. My advice: never be to quick to act!

Coffee time outside in the shade. Courtesy of S. OZONDER.
 

And here are my son and daughter with her son:

My soon and daughter with her son. Courtesy of S. OZONDER

Around 17 hr we went for a short walk, too hot to explore a big part of the countryside. When back, I cleaned the tables and put everything in place for the cheese buffet. Around 20 hr, one by one people left and we did some cleaning up and went home, exhausted but happy full of new energy that loving people give you.

This is the only close up picture of myself with my friend and a splendid bouquet of flowers, my new hair cut and newly made tassel earring.

Me with flowers and a friend Courtesy of S. OZONDER

A tough question

My eldest sister-in-law asked me why I was so happy turning 65. The most easy to formulate reason  is that now I can ride the train or bus at a very reduced price! Besides this, I feel that my age gives me some weight and by age I mean experience, personal, life or practical experience,  my learning, my knowledge.

Another reason is that I am retired: I finished officially my career and have my own income. But life doesn't end with the end of my career, I still have a big portion of life ahead and can start a whole new, completely new life.

But there is another feeling creeping in: I don't have days to waste any more. Not that I am ill or feeling bad; you know, 65 is not 45! I decided I will use my time very well and balanced: no more reading whatever comes my way, I'll select carefully my reading and wont spill my time any more.  This recuperated time I 'll spent with my beloved ones.


Sorry guys, no boho jewelry styling in this post. I didn't get the jewels in my head created and haven't yet taken pictures of the existing ones. I should think all will be ready by next week.

Do you have any serendipity stories to tell us? What do you like about your age!

See you next week!