Eating at my dining room table

 

There is no question that I have a lot of things, and I enjoy my things very much. One of the things that I try to do is use my things.  My home is filled with both family pieces and pieces that I have acquired over the years.  While most people are minimalists these days, I am on the other side of that spectrum, and I have absolutely no issue with that.  That is one of the reasons that you will often see me post my table settings and my Sunday meals online.  I enjoy using what I have and I enjoy sharing that with other people.

It reminds me of meals when I was growing up.  Almost all of the meals we ate were at the table.  We did not sit on the couch and eat very often.  Now, if someone was sick, they could eat somewhere other than the dinner table but that was about the only excuse for not eating at the table.  As most of you know, I was very close to Grandmother and spent much of my time with her.  Oh, what I would not give to go back and do that again.  But when I sit at my dining room table, I am almost immediately transported back to my childhood.  

First of all, my dining room table and chairs belonged to Grandmother and hold a special place in my heart.  So many holiday meals and Sunday lunches were eaten at this table during my formative years.  But I got to thinking the other day that I don't remember not eating at this table any time I was having a meal at her house.  When it was just the two of us, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner, we would sit at the table and eat.  She sat in her place at the end of the table, and I sat to her left.  I always sat to her left no matter the occasion.  When I would spend the night, we would have dinner at the table and breakfast there the next morning.  It was never in her breakfast room but in the dining room. If we had a snack like ice cream or some of her homemade cookies, then we would have that in front of the television in the den.  But meals were always at the table.

So as I sit at my table and have my meals, even when I am alone, I think of her and those glorious times we had when I was a child.  I try to eat at my table several times a week.  Of course, I do enjoy having others over for the holidays but it's the everyday usage that is special to me. I find comfort in that.  Now it is time to share that comfort with others.  So, let's share a meal together at Grandmother's table.  Shall we?