Gatherings, Large & Small

Some of you have recently asked if I’d fallen off the face of the earth (well, actually, off the face of the blog). It seems I’ve been so engrossed in cooking and eating and feeding people that I haven’t taken time out to write about what I most love writing about (coincidentally, cooking and eating and feeding people).

Allow me to look back and share some highlights:

Starting off the season, the evening before Thanksgiving our dear friends Sherry & Kerry had a fantastic open house. Yes, the night before Thanksgiving. Bold, right? That’s just how they roll and now, frankly, I have open house envy. For about five or six years I’ve wanted to have a dessert party the night before Thanksgiving. It goes without saying Thanksgiving typically offers us some of the very best desserts possible, but do we ever truly enjoy them to the fullest because we’re so, well, we’re so darn full from Thanksgiving dinner. My plan would be to have a buffet of traditional Thanksgiving desserts with assorted beverages and maybe a cheese board then invite people to stop in whenever suits them. The monkey wrench in my plan is the sad, but true fact that I have to work the day before and the day after Thanksgiving, with this little glitch I can’t see me pulling off Thanksgiving dinner and a Thanksgiving Eve dessert party. So, I keep this plan tucked away in the back of my brain for “someday.”

Then, there was, of course, the Thanksgiving feast (always a crowd pleaser in our house). That was followed up by an open house at our associate pastor’s home for small group leaders from our church (who knew one of our fellow parishioners made cream puffs from scratch? Rest assured I parked myself next to that serving tray for a good long time!)

Next up was a wedding renewal/reception for John & Melanie, a pair of our most fun, colorful friends. Also bold in their choices, John & Melanie asked each guest to prepare and bring their favorite “whatever” for the reception buffet. This, as it turns out, was pure genius. There was enough food for an army and a variety of choices any caterer would have been challenged to match. Later that same weekend was an early Christmas celebration with the kids and grandkids (tons of fun as only a three and six year can provide, plus we left there with homemade caramel corn, bacon candy and a hearty pan of homemade lasagna for our freezer.)

The good times continued when our small group from church (Bread Breakers, as we call ourselves) met for a pre-holiday dinner (dear friends and fantastic cooks Phil & Debbi gifted each of us with homemade granola and homemade peanut clusters.) The next night was dinner with Dan & Dixie (Dixie of the caramel cake fame) to celebrate my sweet husband’s birthday. Following closely was a fantastic family Christmas that included said husband’s famous city ham, my mom’s legendary sour cream coconut cake, red velvet cupcakes (of course, we’ve established how deep and true my love is for red velvet anything), my sister’s version of Martha Stewart’s pumpkin pie in a shortbread crust, and my older (I think she prefers “higher ranking”) daughter by associations’ green beans and life altering sweet potatoes with olive oil & rosemary.

The next weekend the holiday season of gatherings and feasting was capped with a lovely, relaxing New Year’s Day open house at Linda & Charlie’s. There was food galore and plenty of time for friends to share holiday stories and prognosticate on what 2012 might bring. (It should be noted that the scope of the prognostications seemed to be in direct proportion to how many mimosas the prognosticated had consumed.)

So, my point (and I did have one when I sat down at the computer today) is that we shouldn’t wait until the holiday season to have this much fun. Gather together, break bread, laugh until hurts…I once saw a very wise candy box with this message on the lid “There are only 52 Saturday nights a year. Celebrate food & family every day.”

Who’s with me?