{real invitation} a charlie brown inspired birthday

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with your family and friends! First, I wanted to thank you for so many kind words in regards to the passing of my Aunt Olive last week. My family appreciates your thoughtfulness and prayers. We shed a few tears over the holiday, but our house was mostly filled with laughter!

I am blessed with an amazing family! I am doubly blessed with an amazing family of crafters! We spent a lot of the holiday weekend working on projects for an upcoming birthday celebration. A very special celebration in our house--J's birthday!

J was born on the 12th of December. Before I met J, I hadn't really thought much about birthdays celebrated during the month of December. I didn't realize how many people "combined" gifts and celebrations. I had friends with December birthdays...but I never thought about the fact that we never really celebrated their birthdays. Their birthdays got lost in the holiday rush.

My favorite holiday is Christmas. My second favorite holiday is J's birthday! I have made it a point to celebrate J on December 12th of each year. I want him to know how incredibly special he is. He will never get lost in my holiday rush!

J and I both love theme parties. Through the years I have designed J's birthday celebrations around his hobbies, interests and favorite movies or TV programs. The first year we were dating he needed socks desperately! The party theme was, "Sock It To Him!" Everyone brought a pair of socks as a gift and I decorated with laundry baskets and clothes lines filled with socks! He received so many socks--from dress to hilarious--that they lasted for about 5 years!

Click here for all the details from last year's party, "A Cheesy Birthday!"

Inspiration: This year's theme was inspired by his favorite childhood cartoon strip, "Peanuts," and a phrase I often say to him, "You're a Good Man, Jeff Brown!" J's always loved the comic strip and the TV specials. I even bought him a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree a few years ago!

Are you ready to see the invitation? Are you ready for a few details?

...the envelope, please! {drum roll}

I used the Sunday Funnies stamp and created a

comic strip inspired box around the address. 

I used J's full name on the invitation in a non-Peanuts inspired font

so that it would stand out from the rest of the invitation wording.

Comic strip word bubbles and J's version of Charlie Brown's stripe

will leave no doubt in the mind of our guests as to what this year's theme is!

I always send out J's invitations six weeks before his birthday...

except this year! I sent them out three weeks before the party.

OH, GOOD GRIEF!

Fortunately, most of our friends know we host a birthday

party on the second weekend of December. Hopefully, they've

penciled it in amongst all the holiday parties!

I added the "AAUGH!" into the RSVP line to follow the theme

and vent my frustration at the lack of etiquette

I experience in this business...very few people RSVP!

{SOAPBOX MOMENT:}

Let me just encourage you to RSVP... I BEG of you....PLEASE say yes or no! The sender of an invitation is counting on you until you respond! You were special enough to invite...they are special enough to receive a response!

{BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED BLOG POST}

We'll be giving you SNEAK PEEKS throughout the next two weeks as we prepare for the big celebration!

Stay tuned to Oink! for more inspiration...