Surprises for Sam

"Perception is merely reality filtered through the prism of your soul."

               ~Christopher A. Ray

There were four ways to perceive the events of the day.

Your girlfriend is coming to your house to have dinner with your family and closest friends.

The girlfriend of your son/brother is coming to your house to have dinner with your and your son's/brother's closest friends.

Your are going to your boyfriend's house to spend time with his family and closest friends.

Your friend has invited you to meet and have dinner with his girlfriend.



It was an important day for everyone involved for a myriad of reasons.
But nonetheless,  everyone wanted it to go well.

While Adam went to the train station in Hartford to pick up Sam, we were busy cooking and cleaning and preparing for her visit.  We knew Sam was on the quiet side, and we wanted to think of a way to "break the ice".  Being the creative, funny family that we are, we came up with a few ideas that we hoped would let Sam know that this day was not taken lightly by our family and make her feel welcome!

We were not disappointed.  When Adam and Sam arrived they were laughing after spotting a few of Annie and Kerry's home-made signs along their route. 

Sam's mom sent along a huge box of beautiful Godiva chocolates.  Yum!

As Vance and I were in the kitchen preparing for dinner,  I heard Sam scream and looked over to see what had happened.  She had discovered our other surprise, meant for later that evening.  Kerry and Annie had printed 60 little pictures of Sam's face and put them all over the first floor of the house.  We had planned a little scavenger hunt for our guests.  Sam had picked up a photo book from our Lake George vacation this year and was surprised to see her face taped to the front cover!

Once we told them the plan and they knew about the hidden pictures, they were suddenly able to spot quite a few more in plain view and walked around the house searching for even more.  Kerry and Annie had placed them in quite a few funny and interesting spots!

With a while to go before dinner, they took the camera and headed out to retrieve the signs and to see a little bit of our town.

This is the tree in the middle of the parking lot at Ellington High School.  Beautiful picture!

Adam's friends arrived and we had a nice pasta dinner.  There was a lot of joking around and laughter. Since everyone had been friends on Facebook for quite a while,  I think they felt they knew each other already.  That's the funny thing about the internet and social networking.  

                                                 Jojo and Kerry

                             Mr. Wiggles pretends to be a dinner guest.

                            Parker, Jordan, and Andrew

After dinner, the guests participated in the Sam Lee scavenger hunt.  The prize - a $25 itunes gift card.

 Jordan and Lucas tied, but Lucas was the winner in a 2 minute overtime round!

Caramel apples for dessert!

                                 Maggie and Taylor

There were pictures with Sam to finish off the evening!

  

At the end of the evening, the hosts of any get-together look back and hope that everyone had fun and enjoyed themselves.  Tonight, though, everyone was here because they care so much about Adam. We wanted to get to know Sam because he cares so much about her. 

But getting to know someone is a process - it doesn't happen over one dinner.  It is an accumulation of "perceptions" that happen over time.  I believe tonight was only the beginning...