The Family Meal

July 27, 2008 at 2:40 pm · Filed under family

We eat dinner together almost every day. It’s a rare occasion when we don’t. I know this is a good thing. Even in my dysfunctional family we ate dinner together and every other week we ate at my grandparents home, until their deaths in 1980. My dad also made a Saturday or Sunday morning breakfast at times and those were good too. But when he did that, he sat in the kitchen and ate while the kids sat in the dining room which was just over the doorway. Not far but not at the same table. I guess it’s because the kitchen table only sat 2 people and sometimes my mom was there.

Today we slept in and missed church. Caleb asked what we had to eat and also asked for a family breakfast. I made us egg-in-a-hole and hashbrowns and sausage. Jake didn’t want any of it, that’s ok, he is like that. But Phil, Caleb and I all sat down and ate together. With the TV on. I told him afterwards that the tv was a distraction but he said “it still counts as a family meal!”. I guess so, in his eyes, it was and I am glad for it. I think the days when he asks for the family meal might be over sooner than later so I am enjoying it now while I can.

I just don’t understand families that don’t eat together at least once a day. It’s our time for stories and connecting to each other. It’s part of my cultural heritage. Italians have many courses to their meals, at least their main meal, and spend hours talking, laughing and debating. I know it was like that at my grandparent’s home. I loved those Sunday meals. I loved the smell of Italian food, all homemade of course, cooking and the adults arguing over who was in charge. They argued in Italian so I couldn’t understand. That meal turned into a day long affair. We used to do that with Phil’s parents and it was good. Now that they are living in SC most of the year, it just isn’t the same. I am not as relaxed during those visits because I don’t want them to end and I end up hurrying through conversations to get it all out at once. That’s not good.

One day I hope to be the grandma who’s home my kids and grandkids come to for regular dinners. Right now we have Brit and family in for weekends because they live 2 hours away. Lauren will be over today for dinner and to visit with the boys. She missed them while they were away at camp. I think I am making ravioli and spaghetti, just for posterity sake. Although mine isn’t homemade today it will still be a family meal. Complete with the arguing, laughing and talking.

Poor Phil didn’t know what he got into when he married an Italian woman! He was warned.

Here is an old family picture from 1968. Can you guess which one I am? Leave it in the comments.

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