Surprise!

Those who know me well know I love surprises.  I get very into them for other people and usually can barely contain my excitement while waiting for the person being surprised to show up.

Jon, with some help from my sister and friends Jennifer and Valerie, managed to completely surprise me for my 27th birthday.  I had no clue, and I consider myself to be pretty perceptive- and usually am the one planning things given the nature of my job!

I had already been surprised by my sweet work team (they hid in my office and jumped out when I walked in on Friday-- good one, ladies!) and spent Saturday morning at brunch with girlfriends.  The weekend was going great, complete with sunny weather that was drastically different from how I spent my birthday last year.

Jon told me he had a little something planned for my birthday, and all morning at brunch, my friends (knowing about the surprise to come that evening) kept asking me with feigned sincerity what I thought Jon had planned, where we were going for dinner, what I would wear.  So sneaky, all of them!

As he picked me up, Jon told me he was taking me to Patrizio's, the location of our first dinner date and one of my favorite restaurants.  I was excited! As we headed towards Highland Park Village, Jon said we had a little time to kill before our reservation and asked if I'd like to look at some Christmas lights.  One of my favorite memories early on in dating Jon was the time we got hot chocolate and looked at Christmas lights, so I happily agreed-- completely oblivious to the fact that Jon was stalling because our table wasn't ready!

We walked into the packed restaurant, and right as I wondered why Jon was pulling me past the hostess stand without saying anything to them, we rounded the corner to find a huge table of our families and close friends, with party hats and purple balloons, yelling "SURPRISE!"

I was completely shocked and took a good 20 minutes to stop shaking! It was overwhelming in the best way to look down a huge table and see people that I love the most, and to hear from others throughout the night who had wanted to be there too.  The evening was filled with good food, prosecco (my favorite), conversation, and celebration.  I kept looking at Jon in disbelief that he had planned this for me. And I must say, I'm pretty impressed with his event planning skills!
: )

To my wonderful family and friends, thank you for making me feel so loved on my 27th birthday! I am so very grateful to the Lord for each of you and praise Him for another year of life!