Celebrating on this side of the world

Today was my Dad's surprise birthday celebration at the lovely Indaba Hotel in Johannesburg. The room Charlie reserved is called the Chief's Boma which I thought was pretty applicable. Tanya organized a webcam to use on their side and I borrowed a webcam so I could interact with my family. At 10:30 am USA time (6:30 pm SA time), I logged on to Skype and was able to see everyone arriving at the restaurant. My Dad was totally surprised when he saw everyone there (which included his old college buddies and some other friends) and it was great to be part of the celebration even though it was via the Internet.

My siblings kept showing me the wonderful food they were eating by holding up their plates to the laptop screen. Kudu and Springbok are 2 meats I would have chosen so I had them explaining how everything tasted and had them commenting on some of the other things they were eating.

(Paul thanking everyone for being there while Rozanna holds the laptop so I can see him).

There were a few speeches and "thank you's" before Tanya gave my Dad his other gifts which included a 6-night stay at a nice hotel plus a photo frame of all of us kids. He got another one from my Mom and one from the garden gnome Norman which cracked him up.

The Zulu dancers sang Happy Birthday to him and he had to go up to the front, put a skin head dress on (which he said made his head itch and I'm sure it was psychosomatic) and he played the xylophone while they sang to him.

My Mom 'got busy' on the dance floor and did some Zulu dancing with a bunch of people (did they serve alcohol there tonight??) which shocked my siblings. The photos don't do it justice.

It took a lot of planning and organizing which Charlie and Tanya did incredibly well and my Dad had a great time which was what we wanted.