Once again, due to not catching the sunset photo I wanted, I’m diverting from my planned post. I really need to stop waking at 3am so I can stay up later in the evening.

Last Saturday, I attended an 80th birthday party held for a lady from my small home town.

I was amazed at the thought and work that her family put into the theme of puzzles. If I hadn’t been so busy visiting with the many people I hadn’t seen in a very long time, I’d have taken more photos to show you what I mean by attention to detail.

We were greeted at a large balloon arch entryway where we signed our names on a giant board made of puzzle pieces. We also entered a little contest where we guessed the number of puzzle pieces in a jar. After we signed and made our guess, we were each given a fridge magnet souvenir.

Marlene’s actual birthday was Monday, but they chose the immediately preceding Saturday so more could attend.

There was a large pennant garland along the top of one wall with each individual puzzle-shaped pennant spelling out a letter of Happy 80th Marlene.

The tables were decorated with tiny puzzle pieces and small sheets of crossword puzzles.

There were plates of chocolate cupcakes at intervals on each table and each cupcake was topped with a fondant puzzle piece.

These were only a few of the many puzzle-themed decorations. It seemed that every time I looked around the room, I spotted something else.

Such creativity and attention to detail for a special day is to be admired. I commented to my sister sitting next to me that we really could take some lessons about hosting special occasions. She agreed.

Photo Note: For my feature photo, I just did a crop to edit out the people in the background. For the photo of the plate of cupcakes, I was unable to do that without cropping off the 80 and Fabulous decoration. (lesson learned to pay more attention and get a better angle when shooting)

“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.”

Deepak Chopra