Surprise!

This past Saturday, I had the surprise of my life. In celebration of finishing my master's, Has, Z&A, and my parents threw a suprise party for me! I KNEW something was up when my mom calls and invites me over for dinner on Saturday. She never invites us over...I usually invite myself over. Either there was something she had to tell me or there was some form of bad news to expect! Nevertheless, if she is inviting us, how could I turn that down?!?

So Saturday we are driving over...and little did I know that everything coming out of Hassan's mouth are lies!

"What's your favorite cake? Chocolate or vanilla?" What a random question I thought at the time.....little did I think that it was determining the type of cake for the party!

"What do you like? I'll get you anything you want as a graduation gift!" We walk through stores on Friday night. I thought he was oddly nice and patient that night...he was actually scoping out what gifts to buy me for the following day!

"We have to leave at 3:15pm SHARP so that we don't miss the football game at 4pm!" translates to "Your guests at the surprise party are expecting you at 4pm"

"Yeah, that was Showieb calling from the airport" he casually says. I later find out that it was a friend of ours asking for the closest grocery store to pick up a gift.

"Let me call Edgar to see what the score is on the game" translates to "I have to let Edgar that we are 5 minutes away from the house".

So we arrive at my parent's house at 4pm and walk through the side door and...SURPRISE!!!!

OMG! I was not expecting to see a group of familiar faces standing in my parent's kitchen! Aamir! Zehra! Damon! Ryan! Johnny! Aisha! XiuJuan! Viet! Jen! Heather! Shakir! Edgar! Mikey! Mom! Tefsit! Imran! Justin! Khoi! I was overwhelmed at all the cheers, laughs, and flashes from the cameras! From every walk of life, there is a person I know. Friends that I haven't seen in months because of my crazy school and work schedule and some that I haven't seen since our wedding 3 years ago!

I was speechless at the extent of planning...apparently Has and Zehra were emailing for the past 2 months! Has visited my parents the day after the floors were done to talk about the details of the party! Has even spoke with Jen S. from work to rig my work schedule and have me off for that day! There was an evite sent out...I still don't know how Has got some email addresses. I'm scared to think that he hacked into my email account!

It was refreshing to see Hassan's parents come over and meet my friends. To see my parents together with his. To hear my brothers laughing and joking around with my closest friends. To see my mom talking with Heather about her new baby boy, Ibraheem. To see my dad talking football with Hassan's dad. To see Khoi, whom I haven't seen seen the UMBC days! I'm glad that my parents had the opportunity to meet some of greatest friends (A&Z)! Those are greatest gifts!

Speaking of A&Z, you BOTH are truly amazing. We are lucky to have you both as friends. Thank you for everything! It was perfect in every respect of a surprise party!