“Honey, if he (housemate) is cooking dinner, shouldn’t he be home already?”

“Honey, why is your house so dark?”

Some questions that went unanswered as we pulled up in front of the house where we were to have dinner with a friend before she returned to France on Sunday morning.

And I am sitting here feeling rather bewildered.

It was an ordinary Saturday as far as I was concerned, except we were to have dinner with a friend before she returned to France on Sunday morning. Eli had taken us across the bridge to dine at a Lebanese bakery where I ate my fill of pita and baklawa, we went shopping at the local mall and played wii where I lost every single game and till I was so tired I started to whine about being tired. I started asking about dinner plans and what was up with the people we were to have dinner with and why was there so much delay. Eli brought us to Church to “spend time with Jesus”.

Unbeknownst to me, he was orchestrating evening plans via text messaging the whole time.

Walking up to the front door, Eli did the gentlemanly thing of cracking open the door and touching the small of my back nudging me forward… I pushed the door open and THERE WERE PEOPLE STANDING AT THE DOOR SINGING in the company of candles. I looked around utterly confused. There was a video camera, footage which I have yet to see but I am pretty sure my jaw was on the ground. WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE!?! My eyes instantly fell on the tallest person in the room and my mind went, “Oh! Must be Eli’s friend from Montreal visiting… This surprise party is for Eli!”

Then I saw the cake with the numbers “23” on it, and I’m thinking, Eli’s birthday is on the “22nd”! But wait a minute, we already celebrated his birthday back in May.

However, it wasn’t until I saw my sister’s face that I realized… THIS IS MY PARTY!