Jo Birthday Party

My wife decided to make a 60 years birthday party to her brother Jo.
her plan was to make it as a surprise party, that mean bring him to the party without him to know what is going to be. her brother Jo lives in FRANCE while we live in Israel, so we had to schedule the date in time when he will come to visit in Israel. it's not very easy at all. because he always saying i am coming soon, usually for 5 times maybe one is true. because he is very busy.
the original plan was to do it in a big restaurant with presentation on big screen and a good dinner. the restaurant manager ask for minimum of 50 guests and he ask for 25$ per each guest.
as you understand we had to fix a date to the party, it is not just like that. you can't say few days before. you must give at least more then a week alert. and to make sure the day is available and not scheduled by another party or any other event. so my wife discussed the plan with me her husband and with her other brothers and sisters. well, i told her do what she feels to do. 

her sisters and brothers was not very enthusiastic.
it's not very simple at all, we didn't know how to finance the party,
lets say we are going to ask every guest to pay his participant, there are some guests that where just invited as a guests of honor, we can't ask them to pay. how we will collect the money from the guests, it's looks like a big headache. who is going to cover the cost that will not be covered by the guests. so my wife discussed it with some of the potential guests, to get the feeling how it is accepted. most of them say oh we understand, don't worry you are right we all have to cover the cost of the party. but you know words is one thing and reality is different. another option was to make it in our home, oh this is looks a greater headache, since we will have to cover the complete cost and also going to work very hard to arrange the party. i didn't think it was good idea. we all the time checked with our son in France that was working with jo at that time and with Jo when he is expect to come. as the time goes by waiting and waiting the prices of flights where going up. we knew that Jo must come because his son in Israel was expecting a born child (baby) at this month, and he really wanted to be here when it happened. so we finally knew that Jo bought a flight tickets and he is coming in Wednesday. the plan was to make it on Saturday night at the same week. what then happened is that his son's wife give a birth of the baby. and they were planning to make a birthday party at Friday. another headache came from different way. my wife invited some of her brothers and sisters that lives in France that were staying in vacation. also she invited a family from the north that we invited by then few weeks ago, including our family it was about 14 to dinner and lunch at Friday and Saturday. well let me tell you my wife didn't know what to do. finally she decided in the meanwhile to wait with the party. because it's too much to handle in one weekend. but my wife was still thinking about her brother's Jo party. she didn't know whether to do it as planed or cancel it for this year and wait maybe next year. after discussing with one of her friend and few suggesting from others her friend told her, why don't you make something simple not too fancy, party at home. ask some of the guests to bring a dish or something for the party like salad and so on. lets say that the time is running out because all the guests from abroad including her brother returning home soon.
another thing that has to been taking care was that on Tuesday she is going to fly to Paris to the wedding ceremonies of her Jo son Jonathan and she didn't prepare her luggage. finally my wife decided to make the party in Saturday next week, 2-3 days before Jo and other guests from France leaving back home. the actual plan was to ask some of the guests to bring something with them, but as my wife could not trust what they are going to bring she arrange food to feed twice as much guests then expected. it is not very saving but who cares the important thing is not make a flop (embarrassing) and make it successful. i don't want to get more deep into detail but it was absolutely fantastic.