My House Our House by Karen M. Bush & Louise S. Machinist & Jean McQuillin

Author:Karen M. Bush & Louise S. Machinist & Jean McQuillin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Lynn's Press
Published: 2013-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

Helping: Kitchen Wenches in Residence

At various times, we each expect to make ourselves scarce from family birthday parties, or to graciously accept a housemate’s visitor or visitors in the basement family room/guest room, or to stay in the background but lend a helping hand on occasion. For example, when Jean’s niece, Goldyn, had her wedding reception at our house, Louise was happy to play kitchen wench, washing numerous glasses and dishes that accumulated as the evening progressed. She chatted with the guests, mostly guys, who preferred to hang out in the kitchen.

Several family Christmas celebrations have occurred in the house, as well as Christmas dinners for “straggler” friends. The hostess always includes her housemates in the invitation, but sometimes each has separate plans. Housemates have joined relatives to open gifts on Christmas morning, and we have combined forces with extended family members and assorted friends for numerous festive holiday dinners. Family reunions include invitations to housemates, but we don’t always attend.

If we’re there to enjoy the dinner, we generally volunteer for kitchen cleanup duty afterwards. Having a “house staff” makes entertaining much less daunting.

For any event, we think about who will be with us and how best to enable them to enjoy our home. There have been some challenging combinations of people. One year, Karen had invited a local “straggler” couple for Christmas dinner before learning that her family from California would be able to visit, after all. Except for the fact that all four are mature and gracious people, no two couples could have had less in common. In the days leading up to Christmas we wondered how we could keep everyone from getting into disagreements on politics, social issues and religious beliefs.

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