Last Night's Dinner

A simple transformation it was, but it worked for all of us. The tables and chairs we have had on hand for many years, for this exact purpose. The little clear lights were in place since last year's same celebration. The paper supplies were purchased in bulk from Ollies for only a few dollars. The red glass globed lanterns were from our oldest daughter's wedding almost six years ago. The clear votives were odds and ends I had on hand. The heat came from a little floor heater that we ran all day Friday, making it warm enough for comfort. The Christmas spice candles I burned all day, in old crocks on the floor, leaving the garage smelling just like a Christmas kitchen instead of gasoline.

I host this extended family dinner once a year. This is our third year for this garage dinner event. Tradition has been on this evening, to have a container filled with numbered items(such as a jar of pre-counted candy, or this year pre-counted by me, Reese's Puffs cereal in a clear glass cannister). Everyone is given the opportunity to guess how many pieces are in the clear glass cannister...this year it was 935 pieces. Seated on this make-do shelf are five prizes that I created or baked, with bows...my caramel popcorn, a plate of my orange tea rolls, a plate of old fashioned sticky buns... The one who comes closest to the correct number gets first choice of the gifts, the second closest, second choice and so on. It is a fun competition for a highly competitive family. This tradition suits me fine, since I love creating small gifts.

A small table and chairs beside the long one was were two of our grandchildren sat for the dinner. The wooden nutcracker stood guard on their table.

We celebrated the birthdays of those with November and December birthdays. My neice and her husband helped celebrate their twin daughter's first birthday, with their great-grandma.

Here are my two dear neices. The one on the right celebrating her 20th birthday, which just does not seem possible to me. It seems like only yesterday, I held her proudly as her new aunt.

Two more of my sweet neices, holding my new twin grandsons. I feel so blessed to have the best neices and nephews in my life.
The table looked so long from this end, and it seemed like a huge group of people to feed. I kept the meal as simple as possible, and my mother provided all of the desserts. As a tradition at this dinner, she makes her vanilla pudding pies, in graham cracker crusts, with whipped cream on top. They are delicious!

We covered all the garage type backgrounds with old white tablecloths. This table was used as the guessing table, the coffee table(at the end of the dinner), and the candy table.

Traditions continue...this one, my mother provides a big bowl of gummy lifesavers for everyone. In this family, it is the candy of choice. The red glass stones I scattered on the white tablecloth, to add a bit of colorful pizazz.

Here is the little one's table I told you about earlier...with Sesame Street placemats making it complete.
Here is the close-up of the red glass lanterns I used for the center of the tables. I added some twigs of holly from the bushes at our backdoor, once again to add some green to the tables.

You just paid a visit to one of our simple, but fun, family dinners. The colors, the decorations, the food, the Christmas music are all secondary,to the people who are together on an evening like this one, in a transformed garage on a quiet street. Today...it is back to the garage it was originally, but thankfully the memories will always be there.