Grandpa's 70th: The undelivered speech

A part of Grandpa's dinner celebration involved speeches honouring Grandpa. The plan was for Packrat and his brother to say something followed by Grandpa's best friend saying something and then, us the daughters-in-law saying something. It was going to be a night of speeches and with a bunch of young kids running around, we decided on a truncated version of the list of speeches. Inevitably, the daughters-in-law round was the round to get cut.

But Grandpa still wanted to hear what we had to say and it seemed like an apt way to round off the my entire series for Grandpa's 70th.

What we were going to do was to tell those gathered some things that they didn't already know about Grandpa.

And this was what Jordan and I came up with.

1. Dad always wanted a daughter but we think he got more than he bargained for with his wife, two chattering daughters-in-law and three non-stop nattering grand daughters who occasionally rise to decibels that only dogs can hear. We all love him very much but we sometimes wonder if he misses the quiet.

2. Dad loves and cherishes making memories. He isn't big on treating himself to big luxury items but has brought us all on holidays and never says no when we ask him to come on holiday with us. JED will grow up remembering both grandparents in all their early holidays. They do not stop talking about the holidays they have gone on, with their grandparents. In fact, when we travel without Grandpa and Grandma, JED ask where they are. 

3. Dad is a great cook and loves cooking for those he loves. We all look forward to Sunday lunches because it's always a feast. When we were in Hawaii last year with them, Muffin went through a phase where he only ate fried rice and it HAD to be "Ah Gong's" fried rice. Grandpa's dream is for his grandchildren to ring him over the week to let him know what they want for Sunday lunch. God bless him and Grandma when all 5 children each demand something radically different!

4. Dad's been a great influence on our children. We have two 7 year olds who are as excited to watch BBC's Blue Planet as they are to watch Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo. And our 4 year old went through a time where he only sang the Prologue from Les Miserables. Only Grandpa and Grandma understood why Muffin would spontaneously bellow '24601!'. (It's a Les Miserables thing)

5.This is from Jordan so it's Grandpa rather than Dad. Grandpa dreamt of being a hairdresser. How do I know this? He always has a comb in his back pocket. And when my hair is messy, he takes it out and combs my hair beautifully.

So there, the bits that were going to make up my speech to honour my 70 year old father-in-law, father to Packrat and Ah Gong to JED.

To many more years of love, laughter and long vacations!