On Sunday I met my mom for Mother’s Day brunch at one of my favorite coffee shops, The Filling Station. As we sat around the table chatting with my children I was reminded of all the happy dinners I had growing up. Our kitchen was always filled with people and everyone was welcome. .
There is something magical about a table. You gather around to share stories and secrets and many times the meal becomes secondary to the conversation. It’s the gathering together of friends and family that remain in our memories long after the menu has been forgotten. 
As we grow older and families move away or pass on, we gather with friends. My book club meets each month around one of our tables, regardless of how cozy and comfortable a living room might appear, it’s the table we gravitate to. I look forward to the evenings I spend with friends and family, whether it is the girls I grew up with or my wickedly wonderful cozy sisters here on the blog. Though our times together are infrequent, they are meaningful and cherished by me. 
So, dear reader, make the time to share a meal with someone you love or like or maybe even just want to know a little better. It is the community we find around the table that really nourishes us.
What was your most memorable dinner conversation? Who is the person, living or dead, you would want to invite to your dinner table?
Family happened around the table. Life happened around the table. Attendance was not optional. Nice memories.
It is true, all life happens around the table.
No matter what – guests always seem to congregate in the kitchen and around the table!
All my company comes to the Kimberly tchen. I have photos of my grandmother’s house and they had a sofa in their kitchen for years. It was the focal point of her home.
Love this, Kim. One of my favorite meals happened when we were stationed in Monterey, California. It was an international Thanksgiving with people from South Africa, Hungry, Brazil, Romania, Malaysia and many other places with two other US families besides mine. We had so much fun and after dinner sat around a fire pit. We laughed, talked, and when they requested a truly American song, we all did the Hokey Pokey.
Sherry, that sounds like a terrific time. I often think of holding a “friendsgiving ” for my friends and neighbors who are away from their family.
My mother always insisted that no matter what else was going on, we all had to sit down together for dinner (without television or any other devices). When else does a family get to talk to each other?
My favorite dinner memory was a potluck Thanksgiving in Berkeley, where there are many people with no local family. The table extended from the living room into the hallway–there must have been twenty guests. But the thing that remains in my memory was a conversation with a guy I didn’t know: for some forgotten reason he said that the Chinese believed long ago that comets were dragons. That was an example of the joy of meeting strangers and sharing stories around a meal.
I love that, comets are dragons. I will need to remember it. I always, even to this day, insist my children sit to dinner with me. They don’t have to eat, but they must be in attendance.
I grew up with family dinners, and my favorite is Thanksgiving. For 20+ years, my mother in law visited us during Thanksgiving week so she could celebrate turkey day (and her son’s birthday) with us. It has never been the same since she had to stop traveling a couple of years ago, but we set a place and her place card each year anyway. She recently passed away, so the hole at my Thanksgiving table is deep, but thank you, Kim, for reminding me of all the wonderful dinners we did share with her. She will always have a place set at my Thanksgiving table.
I just love that you set a place for her every year. Beautiful!
I would say the dining table is the focal point in our home. There is no subject off limits or that hasn’t been talked about at one time or other around that table.
When we built our new home, having an open floor plan with the kitchen (the heart of the home), the dining table (where everyone gathers together) and living area (although we live all through our home) all open with views to it all from any one place. Think that is the greatest fad to come about – when they took the walls down.
My most treasured memories of a dining table were at my Mom’s table. She loved to cook (which she passed on to me) and her reward for all her hard work was to see the smiles on the faces of those she loved at the dining room table. It was where relatives and friends returned (some frequently and some on rare but special occasions) to share a meal and talk about news and memories. The food and conversations couldn’t have been better. It was also where sad events were discussed and loving comfort given, where arguments were ironed out and solutions found and where homework was done and lessons both on the written page and through word of mouth were learned.
If I could bring back anyone to join me at that table, it would have to be my Mom. To be able to share a meal again with her, to thank her for not only teaching me how to cook and to love doing so, to let her know how much I appreciate all she taught me about life, love and family would be about the most awesome thing I know.
To show love through food, actions, talking and hugs is what family dining tables are all about.
Kay, how lovely. I would love to share one more meal with my dad and grandparents.
We lived in our kitchen as I was growing up so it is always my favorite place in any home. The person I would most love to have to dinner would be the grandmother I never knew. I understand she was a fascinating woman who was way ahead of her time in adventuresomeness and interests even though most of her life she was a farmer’s wife.
I was very lucky to have known my grandmother. I would love to have just one more dinner with her.
Yes, I so agree with this. Even if the table is metaphorical, like with a group of friends I’d get together with for game nights. We often used the table for the potluck dishes, and then we’d gather in the living room. I’d still call that the table in this case. 🙂
Absolutely, it’s all about the gathering.
Great blog Kim.
Too many wonderful dinners with family and friends, around my mother’s table to point out one in particular.
Now we gather at a cousin’s house, once a year for a family crawfish boil on Good Friday. It is a day/meal we all look forward to.
I would love to be at a family dinner with your mom!!
An important message, and what great photos! Growing up we actually didn’t sit around the dinner table on a normal night. It actually made the holidays even more special, then we’d sit for hours. Ever since I’ve had my own family, sitting at the table has been a must for all meals, mid-week or holidays. Our eldest daughter moved far, far away at the end of last summer, taking the grandorables with her, now our second daughter is moving a plane flight away, I’m even more grateful than ever for the special times we’ve had.
Thank you! I learned about my family -the good, the bad and the ugly – from the stories my grandmother and aunties told while we ate dinner. I wanted my children to have the same kind of experience. Ancestry. Com is a great way to learn about your heritage, but it doesn’t beat hearing the stories.