In the interest of full disclosure, I must inform you three bottles of wine were harmed in the course of this dinner (possibly more in the making of it).
This was a fun dinner. It was definitely a full house and a couple that we haven’t seen in quite a while at the table! My Vietnamese ‘sister’ and her husband joined us. For a grand tally around the table, we had 1 baby, 1 toddler, 2 tweens and 12 adults.
To eat we had Glazed ham with pineapple, scalloped potatoes, cheesy broccoli and leeks, corn, wheat bread and stew (or meat with sauce as the chef put it). For dessert, we had my mom’s rendition of Baklava, which has all of the traditional flavors put into a fantastic coffee cake style pastry.
There were a lot of conversations of course with so many people. Many started before we sat down and start and stopped and repeated themselves, talking over one another as only a very large family can. So here we go,
I need more 0-3 month clothing, I only have like two or three pants and on my little check off-list, I need at least six…
(Snickering) Rookie.
Aren’t new mom’s so cute?
Cute and clueless. Wait till you’re on your third.
Hello…….
I’m a reindeer.
Ah, I was thinking someone was pretending to be a deer today.
We are having live reindeer coming to work and are offering face painting for the kids, so I thought I would try out the design.
Gotcha.
Hey, what happened to you face?
She’s a reindeer.
This is an art degree working for me. I’m getting paid good money to have my face painted.
Well hello strangers!
You left your sunglasses at the baby shower!
Oh, thank you. You know I paid good money for these, like $5 at the dollar store.
So what did you bring? A stew?
It’s meat… with sauce.
Like stew?So what is in it?
Is it gone?
You didn’t get any? Here have mine!
No, it’s ok.
No take some of both of ours and then it will be fine.
No, no it’s fine.
Here take this awful stuff.
So what is in it?
Well, there is wine, at least I think there is wine, I had wine out while I was making it.
I like the addition of the sweet peppers.
The peppers are good.
It’s left over prime rib, with sauce.
It’s really quiet tonight guys.
Take it as a good sign.
We aren’t even close to dessert yet.
This is a lot different than the last time we had dinner here.
Yeah it is, the first dinner we had over there and it was a tiny room.
And, you didn’t have all these windows…
Or counters, or that door or a porch….
The house is much more evacuation friendly now.
I bet it is really nice in the summer with all of the windows.
It is beautiful. But the best part is the visitors we see through the windows…
The cat?
Yes, Gizzy.
Your lights are really pretty too.
That must be why the cars keep turning around tonight, we are the only ones on the roads with lights (purposeful glance at the neighbors).
I plan on doing the whole tree.
You should come see the lights at our house.
It is very bright at our house for sure.
Well, we were going for more elegant than..
Gaudy? We’ve got gaudy. But the kids love it!
Have you seen the decoration with The Grinch stealing the Christmas lights?
(Lots of mumbles of yes and how cute it is)
NO! I haven’t seen that , where did you find that?
On Facebook
Oh fine.
Is Aunt Royleen here?
No that was a turnaround.
Must have seen all the cars and thought there was a party.
You know, a friend of ours from church asked me a while ago what all the cars in our yard were about on Tuesdays. I told him it’s just our group that gets together for dinner, he says, “Every Tuesday?!?” and I answered him, “Yep, every Tuesday.”
Is that the guy with the tractor?
Yeah, that him.
I think he took some of our wood pile too. Nice guy.
So how’d your thing go?
It went OK, thanks for the advice.
(cleaning up the dinner dishes)
So you want to do gun engraving?
Yeah, I hope to.
That’s really cool. It looks super time consuming.
That’s really what it is, it takes a lot of time. The only real expense is the guns.
Where are the kids?
Playing somewhere, the baby is over there.
What is that?
Oh just chewed graham cracker in my pocket.
Your life is so glamourous.
Isn’t it, though?
You’ll call us when it’s time for dessert right?
(She almost waited long enough for me to say Yes, before darting off again)
Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl yet?
Girl.
Do you have a name picked out?
Yes.
You aren’t going to tell us?
No, but if you guess I will tell you.
We’ve been guessing for weeks.
(and the name game starts again!)
Did you just finish a second bottle?
Hey, pass that bottle down here.
What bottle? There isn’t any more wine down here!
(Meanwhile they are filling their glasses and put a napkin over the top of the bottle)
What is that?!?!
That is Baklava, as coffee cake.
Dessert time?
Where’s this piece going?
Everybody have a piece?
He needs one!
No, I don’t really need dessert.
He didn’t get a piece.
You, don’t get to say no to dessert.
It’s true, I tried to say no a few weeks ago because I had a glucose test and some how I ended up eating dessert anyway.
And you passed your test too didn’t you?
I did!
See, these desserts don’t count.
I’m surprised he is eating this, usually he is picky.
Maybe they will be a good eating influence on each other.
Well, I am going to head out.
Adieu, Adieu
So long, farewell, to you (singing)
The Sound of Music brought to you by…..
These are a few of my favorite things…
I’ll leave that song to you.
There she is, that one isn’t a turnaround.
What is that?
Is this the gourd thingy you were telling me about?
It’s a loofah gourd.
It is really odd.
Can I touch it?
I thought loofahs were like sea animals.
Me too.
Apparently, they are squash.
No, they are gourds.
Whatever.
MINE!!!! AHHHHHH
Did Daddy steal your dessert?
Yah
Here you go. Would you rather have some ice cream?
Yah.
Go ask Grandma.
K. (She goes over and signs please, then proceeds to the drawer where the ice cream scoop is kept)
Anybody else want ice cream?
Me!
Do you want a bowl?
Nah, I can eat this all.
What? You can’t eat all that.
Have you never seen me eat ice cream?
Maybe I do need a bowl.
Pass the rest down here, I do not need a bowl.
Somewhere in here things digress to primarily giggles as the third bottle of wine is wrung dry, and conversations about opening a fourth occur and other related wine incidents.
Meanwhile, us parents are attempting to round up our children because it is late, and a school night.
I guess I should have brought him pajamas.
They have to go to school in the morning anyway.
Yeah, I can just stay.
You don’t have clean underwear, you can’t wear hers!
Eh, he can wear his, they’ve got two sides.
No.
I don’t remember you guys playing quite like that.
Well, we were outside more and I was never that girly.
That’s true.
Ok, we are leaving!
Where’s my dad?
He left
WHAT! (Runs outside)
We’ll he didn’t come back in so he must be good.
Good night.
So long, farewell, adieu, adieu…..
The Tuesday Table 