I wrote back here about getting a new extendable dining room table. We didn't waste too much time trying it out. Here's the group of 10 who gathered around it on Friday night (note the Lazy Susan in the middle).
It was a very fun evening. I was particularly satisfied with my made-from-scratch dessert. Mini cheesecakes with cherry sauce (made from dried cherries). Yum!! And there wasn't a crumb leftover.
If you're wondering about the title of this post, it refers to what American's call Graduation Ceremonies: Commencement Ceremonies. Sounds weird to an Aussie ear. Anyway, I thought it wasn't a bad word to use for the first meal on our extended table.
In a land where houses are small, people don't do hospitality in their homes very much. Certainly our family is rarely invited to anyone's home. No bad feelings, though. Who'd want our rowdy bunch of five? But our place is big enough and now we certainly have a table equal to the task. Additionally our boys love having people over for meals. So I'm hoping to step up a bit on the inviting-people-over-for-a-meal front this year.
3 comments:
You are a good host.
wow! We live in a culture that always has people over, and our dining room table extends to over 12 feet, but still isn't always big enough. Today, with only six hours advance notice, we had 17 for dinner. One of our leaves for the table is broken, so we had to add on the kitchen table and get cozy, but we all fit! (If we don't, we just lay the tablecloth on the living room floor and squish in sitting cross-legged on the floor!)
I don't think I could emotionally survive in a culture that doesn't believe in visiting in the home. Glad you are inviting people over, and hope it makes others feel comfortable to do the same at times!
Ellie, It is both a cultural thing and a pragmatic thing (tiny apartments/houses are the norm). And yes, we struggled with it when we first came to Japan . . . for a long time.
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