Family Time..... diinner time

I have many good memories from my childhood. I was born at the coast of Brazil in a city called Ilheus and the beaches there are amazing. Playing time in the afternoon meant going to the beach and play in the water with my friends for hours. I remember fishing crabs at 9 pm with my dad and getting home by 11pm. My mom would have a boiling pan ready for us to cook the crabs and eat them right there and then. It was FRESH from the sea, for real. One thing I did not have though was family meals. My mother never sat with us. She cooked everything, delicious meals but always had an excuse not to sit and eat with us. She was not hungry; she had things to do etc.

From the time I started dating my husband, meal time, has always being almost sacred time. We had to sit down at the dining room table, food all served in plates and not pans, serve each person and then start eating and talking. When we had our first child, Tarsis, we added her to the table as soon as she could sit in the high chair. It did not matter she would make a mess. She was part of the deal and we were happy to have her making those baby noises. As she grew up, she went from the high chair to booster chair to regular chair. We would go around the table and everyone had a chance to talk about their day. What went wrong, what was good and exciting and that prompted so many wonderful discussions about politics, economics, the world, cultures and so on and so forth. After seven years we got a new addition, our son, Victor and at some point, he was there sitting in his chair telling us how school went, how he was happy because of this and that and how the kids bugged him etc.

My dining room table has being the stage of so many wonderful diners, where we spent as long as hour and a half talking about just about anything we want. Then, the expected but not prepared for because there is no preparation for this, happened. My daughter went to college and something went missing in our diners. Chemistry was not the same. We all missed her terribly. Diners got short. We all ate and went our way to do something. As my son grew and became this wonderful teenager, a new chemistry brew and here we are, having fun at diner all over again. It took us almost 4 years but it is here again, I can feel it. We play with each other, we make fun of each other in a good healthy way. It is different from when Tarsis was here but it just as good. I am grateful after our diners because I realize how much we love and like each other. How much we enjoy ourselves and the food we prepare and the conversation. I know I will have to start all over again in 3 years when Victor goes to college but for now, I am enjoying it as much as I can.