february for friends and family

They say February is for lovers. Ha. As I set myself to copy the dry-erase board info into the paper calendar I’ll hold onto I’m amazed at the gatherings we shared this month.

Dinner with a friend who just loves when my kids invade her house … mostly because her dog sleeps in the next day, worn out from six smallish feet in constant motion. When Hershey sleeps in, my friend gets to, too. Hooraay! The adults spend time catching up on each others’ families, work and the other tidbits that make life interesting. Ingredients move through a process, but none of us is really thinking about it.

Dinner with my husband’s buddy and his family is always fun because the kids get along so well. We fed them first while my friend and I talked and the guys worked on a “garage project” under the welcoming warmth of some extra lights. When the guys were cleaned up the adults sat down to a second wave of the same meal while the kids curled up in front of the warm glow of a DVD on TV. Ingredients move through a process, but none of us is really thinking about it.

The church potluck gave us a chance to learn more about people we pass every week as they drop their kids off for class. Crock-Pots and Rubbermaid are lined up, emptied, cleaned up, carried, but none of us is really thinking about it.

A family birthday celebration, catching up on the news and laughing again at stories we know well. The spread rivaled any Christmas feast you could imagine, but the conversation across generations was really cooking!

Bunco night with the neighborhood moms left ears ringing with laughter after the fun. Dips and dippers, sweets and treats traveled to paper plates and High-Low tables. We all enjoyed this potluck, too, but none of us was really thinking about it. We were rolling the dice!

A scrapbooking day with friends always requires some snacks and beverages, maybe something a bit more hardy, too. But what we take away from the day is what we learn watching each other work … the pictures of a Disney Trip or of a wedding … the baby pictures belonging to a child I’ve only known since she was 10 … family history as it unfolds in a black-and-white album. Working like this opens up conversations that might not happen otherwise … so what if you’ve got a Twinkie in your mouth!

Sure Hubby and I took some quiet time to celebrate this month, but February isn’t just for lovers. Any kind of gathering can happen any time. I think a lot about gatherings this time of year. At our house it’s what we call “Birthday Season.” All of our kids will be another year older in the next few weeks. But I’ve got one thought left to share on these “non-traditional” family meals.

Who did you eat with this weekend?