Laughing at Book Club Dinner

Last night, I hosted our annual Book Club Holiday dinner. We meet every month at someone's house and provide dessert but once year, we have a holiday dinner. For Mother's Day last year, my husband let me purchase the remaining pieces I was missing in my china that we registered for at our wedding. So, I offered to host this year so I would have an excuse to use it. Also, a few years back, I got these Thanksgiving pieces that grace my fireplace mantle during the month of November.

We don't have a true dining room in our house, so I just set the table in our kitchen. Instead of using a table cloth, that I would have to wash and iron, I just put down paper and then "wrapped" the table with nylon netting. The brown paper brought out the gold in my china and I was happy with how it all turned out.

When my husband came home after spending the evening at his sister's house with the kids, my eight year old daughter came up to me and said, "Every time we come home when you have book club, all you guys are doing is laughing. Do you guys do anything else?"

I thought about it and I realized it was a brilliant observation. Book club is such a fun place to leave the frustrations of life behind and just chat and laugh. (And, we do discuss the books we have read.) This is not to say that many of the woman in my book club aren't dealing with hard things. We all have our own personal trials but for a few hours once a month, they don't seem as bad. We have each other and there is a lot of laughter. I feel blessed to be part of this group.