Tonight, hungry followers, I have decided to pay due homage to a wonderful staple that can be found in nearly every single persons home. This is a place unlike any other in the home. Sure, we all bathe, we all brush our teeth, we all sleep, we all get dressed, we all wash the dishes, we all watch T.V. and play on the computer, and we all take a moment to stare outside a window that frames our favorite views. But there is one place in the house where magic is made, where people come together to pray, to celebrate food, to be together, to share stories and laughter, and that place my friends, is the dinner table.
The dinner table is where I have made friends, ended friendships, reunited with far away family, been made to feel like family, and where I have celebrated some of the most wonderful, beautiful times of my life. It is also where some of my most passionate arguments have taken place with my family. It's where my brother nearly lodged an oak chair into my back, where I told my mother that I hated her, and where I challenged my fathers authority more than once. It is from where plates when crashing, glasses went flying, and cutlery went soaring. There are so many wonderful experiences that I've been through at a table. Just this summer, I had all of my friends and family from far and wide at one long table (as you can see in the photographs below) behind my house. The English invaded! And what a wonderful invasion it was. We ate, we drank, and we caught up. It meant more than words can say to have all of our most valued family members and friends at the same table. Barbecue and beer.....can you think of anything better?
I remember every single time I left for Italy, my grandmother would call to ask what I wanted for dinner when I arrived at her house. The answer was always "pastina con brodo"....little pasta in homemade chicken broth. Always. That meal always put me straight into the swing of things, put me to sleep, allowed me to relax and feel like I was finally in the right place. At that table I had years of fresh killed chicken, fresh plucked eggs from the chicken coop, fresh Italian cheese, homemade pasta in homemade sauce, delicious olives, soft oven baked bread.....it almost makes my heart hurt to think about how much I miss the feeling of sitting at that dinner table. Bacon straight from the pig that was killed that winter, salad from the garden, carrots so fresh and orange that they almost glow. One of my fondest memories at that dinner table was staying up nearly all night once with my grandmother taking beans out of their shell for drying. We talked, but I mean really talked. About her life, about her marriage, her children, her loves, her hates. I feel like that night my grandmother showed me a side she had been longing to show me for ages. She just needed the right time and place. At the dinner table, when it was just us two.
I have also experienced wonderful reunions at dinner tables, beers and appetizers with my friend Stephen when he comes home from being at sea for ages. The last time, we had the privilege of having his wonderful brother Tom with us as well. No one makes us laugh like Steve! A coffee date at JJ with Leah, dinner at Patrick and Justine's, greek and/or steak with Brandi and Chris, buns and deli meats with the Machado/Woods clan on Sundays, breakfasts after a walk of shame, awkward first dates over coffee, dinners catching up with cousins who don't have the chance to see one another as much as they would like...laughter and tears....BOTH thanks to my wonderful cousin Andrea, who makes me laugh so hard sometimes it hurts! Think about the last few times you have been at the table with someone, or on your own. Were you celebrating someone's love? Someone's life? Someone's passing? Someone's birth?
What a wonderful place, the dinner table. What a wonderful place where people can be together in their love and in their panic and stress and fear. What a wonderful place to share stories and love and tenderness and kisses! What a wonderful place where memories are made, where children's drawings take life, where cakes are decorated, where items are fixed, where music is written, and where fruit ripens!
Take a moment in the next week to treasure the time that you have with loved ones at the place where you share food and break bread.
The following are a few pictures of my some of my favorite moments at a table. I hope they bring as much joy to you as they do to me.
Spicy pasta on the Arno river:
Dinners with SHALANE <3
Lunch with my zio and zia in Paterno......homemade EVERYTHING!
Drinks with my new friends....
First trip to comicon!
The table where I met my husband the night after this photo was taken...
Where I learned to play dungeons and dragons...
Windmill creation on our first camping trip together...
When my husband asked me to be his girlfriend...
Pizza in Celano with my cousin....
Seeing Marta off when she left for her first year in Medical school!
Christmas lunch in Italy with my brother...
Drinks and cards at Angela's house...
Christmas party with work friends!
HUGE family dinners at mom and dad's!
Paul making me breakfast on my trip to meet his family in England...
Catching up with old friends in the UK...
Christmas dinner at my mother and father in laws, Gloucester <3
Drinks with new friends....
Prepping for Star Wars beer pong...
Anytime I get chinese food dates with my little brother...
Cultus Lake with the godparents <3
Our last Christmas living at home...
Christmas bingo!
Hugest burger ever!!!!!
Signing marriage papers....
First birthday cake :)
Picnic with great friends...
Celebrating my graduation with LUNCH!
Goodbye dinners....
Summer with the English...
Sister and brother in law celebrate 12 years of marriage here!
My wonderful father and father in law..
My 4.5 year old nephew winning beer pong..
Again, Chinese with Julian..mmmm...
Our wedding reception....bliss!
Rest in peace, my wonderful, beautiful Zia Maria <3
Paul meeting the pub crew....Monday mornings, bright and early, beers and chips....
Making perogies with good friends <3
My ring bearers communion...
My brothers graduation...
Dinner with my girls...
I dedicate this blog entry to my wonderful grandmother and to my late aunt Maria, who shared a wonderful dinner with us just days before she passed away. <3
