Family Dinner Table

A couple of days ago it dawned on me that even though we live in the same town as Kari, Chas, Kalei, Kristin and Luke, and we see them all often, we don't have a family dinner with all of us present unless its a special occasion. We always have birthday dinners, Christmas morning breakfast, an Easter meal at some point during Easter weekend, and usually Mother's Day and Father's Day meals at our house. So I decided it was time to have a once-a-month Family Dinner Night at our house. I immediately texted Kari and Kristin inviting them and their families to our house for supper on Friday night. Kristin immediately answered "What's wrong?" And Kari's response was "Why?" I assured them nothing was wrong, that I just wanted us all together.

The family dinner table is very important to me. I grew up in a family that always had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the big old kitchen table. (Except we called it breakfast, dinner and supper back then!) I followed that tradition with Kari and Kristin. We sat down as a family, and had conversation! If they didn't have something they wanted to talk about, then I came up with a topic. It was never hard to get them to talking! I learned about their teachers, boyfriends, upcoming events, things they were concerned about, or excited about. I loved it when they had company over and their friends could be included in those interesting meal time chats. So it shouldn't have been a huge surprise when I planned Family Dinner Night here at our house.

I decided to do a "build your own Nachos" set up with Sopapilla Cheesecake for dessert. Luckily, my sous chef, Kalei, was here with us. I put her to work. She has become quite handy in the kitchen. Just cooking together lends itself to a great place for conversation and teaching. We had it all prepared when Kari, Chas, Kristin and Luke arrived.

As soon as we had made our nachos and sat down, the talk began about their curiousity as to why I'd called this meal! Kari said that when I'd been a little slow about answering her question as to "why?" I wanted them to come over her mind began to wander......one of us was sick, or that we were moving. (She quickly nixed that last idea when she remembered Kristin and Luke had just moved here and were expecting our next grandchild!) Chas said he thought I was gonna announce that I was pregnant! (I THINK he was kidding!) I just told them that I missed having them all around the table for a meal....and that got them to talking! Kristin said that she "Never remembered a time that we didn't sit around the table to eat." And I reminded them that we also never watched t.v. UNLESS the Country Music Awards were on! I was thrilled that they remembered how important that tradition had been to me. Our conversation last night bounced around from the Casey Anthony story, to the cost of new cars and "what on earth do those people do to make those high car payments"?? We talked about the crib that Kristin and Luke had just picked up at BabiesRUs. We talked about how school supply lists had changed over the years, when Kari said an ear bud is included on Kalei's list this year. We went around the table and discussed whether we said "map colors" or "colored pencils". We even let Benny talk! He often has a hard time getting a word in edgewise when Kari, Kristin, Kalei and I are talking! We sat at the table for about 2 hours. Kalei went and got colors and a coloring book, and though she was coloring, she was also involved in the conversation.

I know that my mom and dad would be proud of our Family Dinner Night, and happy that we've decided to make it a once a month tradition. A friend of mine suggested we take turns having it at our house, Kari and Chas' house and Kristin and Luke's house. But I nixed that idea. This is a "coming home" kind of tradition. (We will still have the special occasion meals, but Family Dinner Night will just be to have a meal and be together!) We've already discussed where Grace will sit after she is born. Of course, Kalei wants her next to her, and promises she will help us feed her. It may take some getting used to, these non-special occasion meals......when we got up from the table, Kristin said "Let's go open gifts!" ha

I think next month we will go with an Italian theme.......