Entertaining

As a kid, my mother did a lot of entertaining, and I was good at the getting set up part.  That's just a part of my nature, I'm the gal behind the scenes kind of person.  As kids, my sister always wanted to play teacher to the neighborhood kids. We played school often!   Me??  I was the one who set up and arranged the desks, made sure there was paper and pencil for the students as well as the teacher.  That's the part I was good at, and liked.  It is the same for entertaining.  I like the planning, the setup, and even the cleanup.  But the entertainment part?  Not my favorite part, but I should try harder.

Mom would decide that she's going to have a dinner for some branch of the family.  And the planning was a big part of that, along with the first step:  cleaning the house.  She made lists of chores that needed to be done, lists to plan the menu, and lists for grocery shopping.  I grew up with the entertaining aspect as part of my life.  I know that what we did as a family wasn't half as elegant as the stuff we'd see on TV, but it was more than just a paper tablecloth with paper plates and plastic silverware.  

Does the thought of a big dinner overwhelm you?  Do we just skip over the entertainment portion of life because the thought of all that needs to be done for that overwhelms us?  I think it's important for us all to remember that while we may not want to go "all out" with fancy china and silver utensils (that need to be polished all the time!), that going to the effort of sharing food is a very good thing.  

One of the things I remember doing years back was having what we called a "Progressive Dinner".  Several couples would volunteer to host just a part of a dinner.  We would start at one family's house and have drinks and finger foods.  At the next hour, we would drive to the next host's home and we might have our first course, another home and another course, the last home was coffee and dessert.  This way the expenses were kept to a minimum, and the evening was filled with many different interests and a lively group of people!   Another way to keep costs down is to host a potluck, each family bringing something to share, that way the entire preparation isn't so daunting.

I haven't seen my daughter and her family since the COVID thing started, but the last time they were here, we went beyond paper and plastic to actually cooking the meal together:  steaks on the BBQ, broccoli, taters, and some crusty french bread.  We sat down to our meal at one table, with table cloth and stoneware dishes.  Ok, I admit we used paper napkins ....   The important part was the sharing while cooking, while eating and even while cleaning up.  My greatest hope for all that effort is that it will remain a good memory for all of them.  Sharing is such a blessing!