family and food (m)

First, the Week Two results:  I was down 2.2 pounds, bringing my two-week total to 12 pounds.  Elaine smiles and sticks something on my book...a gold star.  "Here you go...this is for breaking the ten-pound mark.  We never get tired of gold stars no matter how old we get, right?"  I used to live for gold stars. I must say, I was as excited as a second-grader when I saw my book with the star.  I even kept it open for others to "accidentally" see.

Tonight, we had our second 25th anniversary party.  This time with family. Phillip and his wife hosted it and it occurred to me that Phillip was magnanimous in choosing tonight as this was not one of his days to eat.   My mother, aunt and two brothers and their children were there.  My two sons were not and it made me sad.  The oldest, Sam, is in college in New York.  The other, Harrison, was at a farewell party for his good friend who is moving back to New York tomorrow morning. 

Food is central to every gathering for my family.  There is always too much of it and there is a whole after-meal scene where people scurry to divide the leftovers into Tupperware containers so that everyone gets to take home a "plate".  It's exhausting.

My husband gave a toast in honor of our anniversary and thanked my family for making him part of theirs.  It made me think of his family...New England Yankees.  Dinners at their house were a simple protein, salad, and one starch.  Dessert was on only special occasions and only one thing.  An Apple Pie, for example.  I remember getting hammered one Christmas during the cocktail hour where the gin kept coming and there were only radishes and celery for appetizers.  Dinner was Welsh Rarebit and creamed onions on saltine crackers.  Christmas Dinner.

Maybe the marriage has worked all these years because we have blended two extremes and normalized them.