Simply Dining

If you’re looking for a Tablescape adventure, you’ll have to scroll down to yesterday's post. This one takes place at a table of a different sort.

The family table

I love the family table, and gathering with the extended family around one on Sundays is a simple pleasure.

Ok... simple for me. The Duchess does all of the work.  To be fair, we’ve offered to alternate hosting or switch to pot luck, but both offers were refused. Sunday dinner at Grandma’s house, prepared by Grandma, is family tradition.

You won’t find a fancy centerpiece or candles in the middle of our Sunday table. There simply isn’t room with all of the food. It’s just not Sunday dinner unless you can fill every square inch of your plate if you have a mind to.

I usually have a mind to.

It isn’t fancy, either. We use tumblers instead of goblets and stoneware instead of china. We don't need place cards because we sit in basically the same seat every week anyway. The only exception through the years would be  alternate Duchess flanking by grandchildren.



Here's how we roll...
Immediately following the Amen, the Duchess begins to narrate the table, pointing to each food item as if it were not abundantly obvious in the first place. She generally throws in a disclaimer or two, too. She’s sorry to say that those scalloped potatoes could have cooked a little longer. The ham, on the other hand, looks just a tad overdone.

Overdone meat is generally blamed on some poor, unsuspecting pastor and a long winded sermon.

After the tabletop tour, we pass the food. We always pass in the same direction, but since I still don’t know my left from my right, I’m unsure which direction that is. I just wait for something to be passed to me and jump on the bandwagon.

And we talk while we’re doing it.

Loudly.

Just imagine My Big Fat Greek Wedding

meets

The Beverly Hillbillies.

If a sauce or gravy is in front of you, you must remember to wait until its corresponding meat marches by before inserting it into the food parade. If you’re talking and miss the gravy interjection opportunity, you get the two syllable scolding.

When all food returns to its assigned post, we eat. The noise level goes down about a half a decibel for about a half a minute before it amps up again. We talk about church or school or the latest town tidbit. We recap the news. We discuss politics, and it can even get a little heated. Generally speaking, we can solve any major world crisis by dessert and coffee.

Because every Sunday dinner is followed by

dessert and coffee.

Dessert time is a major production for the Duchess. She stands at the counter, coffee pot in hand, and heralds about every conceivable option.

Who wants pie?

Pumpkin or chocolate?

With whipped cream or without?

How about ice cream?

This last question prompts the ice cream flavor proclamation. The Duchess can make a simple pleasure very complicated.

All told, the dinner hour lasts two on Sundays. By this time, most testosterone has skedaddled to another room where remote controls have mute buttons. Those who remain clear away the dinner mess and plop back down at the table for a little more conversation.

I have been known to have a little more dessert too... once I get my second wind.

Without a doubt, Sunday dinner is my favorite time of the week, and though the food is delicious, it's really just secondary.  Simply put, I love Sunday dinner because the centerpiece is family and the main course is love.

I don't know what Sunday dinner will look like in years to come. The truth is that my girls will probably live too far away to share a weekly meal with me. And I'm not foolish enough to think that we will  have the Duchess forever either. So I cherish this simple pleasure, and I try never to take it for granted.

If there is one question that I get asked more than any other, it is the secret to the closeness of our  family. How is it, folks want to know, that you are closer to cousins and uncles than some people are to their own brothers and sisters?

It’s just this:

My parents knew a simple truth

as did my grandparents before them.

Strong families are built

around the family table.

This week’s simple pleasure was inviting you to ours.

****

Sharing this with Dayle at A Collection of This and That

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