First "etiquette dinner"

It seems that often when we hit some kind of "impasse" in our relationships, the brainstorming and creative problem solving that happens in a family meeting can lead to a good and fun solution. It is probably as much as anything taking the TIME needed to talk through things and think together about how to make things more workable for everyone. One of the most recent "impasses" we have been facing is how to make it such that mealtimes can be pleasant for all of us, when we are at home and out and about; how to encourage some measure of choices and freedom and having a semi-relaxed posture on manners and cultural norms, while keeping things in the bounds of "reasonable." Much more could be said but this will do for the preface of a blog post.

The outcome of our family meeting was that we would (somewhere in the range of once a month) have a fancy "etiquette dinner" to practice table manners that would be expected of someone in our cultural context - fun, informative, and a platform for good discussions about cultural norms, how things are done different places around the world, how different people even within a similar culture make very different choices. So tonight was the night!!

After a fun sleepover here with little friend Phoebe last night, Kali and I got to work shortly after noon on our "fancy meal." Kali had chosen the menu.

Appetizer: homemade tomato cocktail and cheese triangle crackers
Soup: lentil venison barley with rosemary
Bread: rye bread sticks with various olive oil dipping sauces
Main course: venison pea Indian dish over mashed potatoes (with the last potatoes from the garden)
Side dish: fresh pepper slices and cherry tomatoes from the garden
Dessert: serviceberry apple crisp with homemade strawberry dream cream

We were all so full by the end of dinner (okay, so I was full after the soup), that we have taken a short break to let things settle before dessert. Kali is ready to eat dessert and I'm ready to get into comfy clothes. :) So this will be short. In summary: we had fun! But my goodness there are a lot of things to remember when you try to be proper. We all got some reminders. My downfall is elbows on the table. Jason's is reaching for food. We gave the youngest member a good number of reminders about talking with a mouth full of food... But it was all in good spirits and there was definitely an incentive on Kali's part to keep her fancy dress clean.

I'm quite certain that Tadpole's favorite part of the day was the nap I squeezed in this afternoon. But I did think I felt two small movements towards the end of dinner, so maybe the meal was agreeing with him/her too. Kali of course put her hand on my belly right away - she is pretty eager to feel her little brother or sister moving in there. She gives me (well, my abdomen at least) many hugs and kisses each day!