Saturday, December 15, 2012
In the public school system, you never know who will become
your child’s classmate. Will she sit
next to the class clown, a bully, meet her best friend for life, or will she be
lonely? For Kate, one classmate has
remained constant through kindergarten, first grade and second grade: a cute, brown-haired, brown-eyed boy named Brandon. Much to Kate’s dismay, he calls her “Princess.” To retaliate, she calls him, “Dude.”
My friend Mrs. T and I discussed getting together with the
R. family for several months. However,
trying to coordinate each family’s schedule proved challenging. Plus, Mr. R. works Sunday nights, so my
traditional sit-down dinner was not going to work. We finally agreed to a Saturday night in December
and I marked the event on my large kitchen calendar.
As the day drew nearer, the December 15th square
on the calendar filled up with other obligations:
a church holiday breakfast, a meeting with our Bishop in the afternoon, and
a holiday open house invitation from another family. To add to the holiday bustle, earlier in the
week, I had prepared 50 stuffed chicken breasts for a church women’s Christmas
dinner.
Saturday night rolled around and I simply didn’t have the
strength or mental capacity to cook. So,
I pulled my only dinner party Hail Mary of the year.
I ordered pizza.
Lots of Pappa John’s pizza.
DELIVERED.
I still prepared a few sides: green salad, carrots-n-dip, and grapes. Mrs. R. brought pastries filled with dulce de
leche and chocolate pudding. Mrs. T brought
mini-bundt carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting and cookies-n-crème ice
cream with chocolate and caramel toppings.
We ate on paper plates with plastic utensils and plastic cups. The kids drank juice boxes and small
water bottles.
Our kind husbands sat with and supervised all seven children
while the three moms chatted and enjoyed our meal in an adjacent, more quiet,
family room. It was nice to get to know
Mrs. R. better and hear her inspiring stories of coming to America, learning
English, and taking on a housekeeping job when she was trained as a dentist in
her native country.
After dinner, all six boys played together nicely, for the
most part. I checked on the kids
occasionally when I felt the walls vibrating. At one point, Brandon dared Kate to drink an
entire water bottle in one gulp. Kate
performed the dare, but afterward, quickly ran to me concerned that she was going
to throw up. I spread a pillow and
blanket on the carpet by the adults and Kate laid there until her swollen tummy
calmed down. She stayed away from the
boys after that.
Dinner with the T. family and the R. family was really fun. It made me wish I had enlisted the help of
Pappa John and disposable paper goods months ago. After all, I should know by now:
It really isn’t about
the food anyway.
