This is my very first giveaway!! Yippee! It's through CSN Stores and is for a $30 gift certificate (open to US/Canadian residents only). I have had a great time looking through their website - they have a lot to offer and at good prices. All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment on this posting about your favorite dining room memory sometime between now and midnight Sunday night (July 18, 2010). I don't have a random number generator thing so Monday morning I'm going to ask my son to pick a number between 1 and however many comments I have received on this blog post and that number comment will be the winner - so commenters will need to check back sometime Monday or Tuesday because I'll announce the winner on my blog. While I would love for you to follow my blog, I'm not going to make that a requirement. I would truly appreciate it if you would let others knows about this giveaway.
Now, to wax nostalgic ... This is my grandmother. She was an exceptional woman and though I have always admired and respected her, that admiration and respect only grows as I get older. After losing her husband fairly young in life (in her 40's), she went back to school and got her teaching degree. It was very unusual for a "mature" woman in the 1940s to return to school to get a degree. She then taught school until she retired. My most vivid memories of her are connected with her dining room which was the central room in her small house. It was always a joy to gather around the table in her dining room to just be together and enjoy each other's company. And the delicious smells that came from her kitchen ... oh my gosh ... So many of her meals centered around seafood since she lived on the coast. My grandmother believed in 3 meals a day, with the main meal being served at noon - I can almost hear the noon whistle in Beaufort in my memories as I write this. She usually had breakfast in her kitchen, but the main meal at noon, and supper were always served in her dining room. No paper plates. No dishwasher. Real plates and real silverware that were all washed, dried, and put away right after the meal. The dining room table was always "set" for the meal.Her dining room furniture is now sitting the home of a cousin and I will someday be the recipient of that dining room set because my cousin wants to get a new dining room set. I can't wait to get it in my house; I plan to sit at the space that was always "mine" and recall the laughter, the love, and the smells. I don't know that I'll ever feel worthy of sitting at the head of the table because that seat certainly belonged to my grandmother.
Hey, Sally....I just realized that our grandmothers were cut of similar cloth. My mom's mom was widowed when she was 28, say around 1945 or 46. Two or 3 years later she started college and graduated as a Speech major (which today would be communication.) My mother always set a beautiful dining room table, so elegant and delicious! We had a huge dining room table, which they bought in Charleston!
ReplyDeletemy favorite memories would be any time all the family sits at same table to enjoy a home cooked dinner or xmas eve's when we open our home for xmas eve with family and friends and people sit around to enjoy some goodies and chat bout old times
ReplyDeleteGosh, only pick one dining room memory? I have hundreds! :o) One of my favorites is traveling with my sisters to our hometown to visit our grandparents and decorate their house for Christmas. Grandma always loved to decorate her table, a 'butterfly leaf table' for each holiday. I used some placemats and snowman decor she had on hand, then went out and found some Snowmen plates, mugs, and napkins. We created a centerpiece and 'dressed' the table with the new dishes and Grandma's bright red tablecloth. It looked lovely! Grandma came in and tears popped into her eyes. We sat around that table the rest of the weekend enjoying one another and eating Grandma's fried chicken and homemade applesauce. It was the last time we were all together, and I treasure that table and those moments we had.
ReplyDeleteFound you at Someday Crafts. Happy Thursday! :o)
www.seamsinspired.com
Mine would be sitting at the table with my mom & grandmother eating & playing rummy. I was so little, & it made me feel like one of the big girls.
ReplyDeleteWe'd play cards at night when all of my family would be in town...it was THE BEST! smilin_chick@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteI was an only child and my parents worked, so we never really sat down much together to eat. After I got married, I always loved it when we spent holidays with my husband's family because he was from a large family and the table was crowded and everyone was happy and sharing stories, arguing, talking -- all at the same time. I loved it.
ReplyDeletedigicat {AT} sbcglobal {DOT} net
My grandparents were the only ones I knew with a dining room and we could only eat in it at Christmas! It was a treat!
ReplyDelete{Rebekah}
allthingzrelated@gmail.com
Like you, my favorite "dining room" memory also comes from my grandmother's house. She lived very nearby me when I was growing up, so I spent a lot of time with her. Her dining room table didn't have traditional legs, but was attached to a sort of chest or large drawer. There was a cubby space between the chest and the table surface, and I can remember how much I loved hiding there. No one could see me underneath the table cloth. Of course, I was small, and they were probably just pretending that they couldn't find me!
ReplyDeletelemonandrose {at} gmail {dot} com
My favorite dining room memory is sitting in my grandparent's dining room with all of my cousins and hearing stories told by my grandpa (who was an amazing story teller). Good stories make for great dining.
ReplyDeleteEvery Thanksgiving was memorable because that is the only day of the year that everyone in our family were all together! Sometimes we had to eat in shifts, but it was SO much fun!
ReplyDeleteHobartsMama {AT} AOL.COM
My favorite would have to be a recent one. This past May, my mother-in-law had major back surgery and was in the ICU for a month, the respiratory unit on a trach for 2 weeks, rehab for 20 days and currently in a nursing home for further rehab and hoping to go home this Monday. On July 4th, she was feeling pretty good so we arranged to have her come home for the afternoon for a cookout. My mom, who is a retired nurse, picked her up and brought her to her own home where we had a wonderful cookout and she got to eat at her own table for the first time in almost 2 months. She was almost in tears she was so happy. She then was still feeling good enough so we took her to the fireworks. It was a great day!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite dining room memories is sitting at the table on Sunday evenings in the winter and having my mother making homemade hot chocolate and toast before bedtime. We would often accompany that with a quick game of Uno or Go Fish with all the siblings. It was great! Thanks for hosting a great giveaway!
ReplyDeleteemsfsemsfs(at)gmail.com
I just ran across your blog- what a great personal blog.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that one of my favorite memories around the dining room table would have to be doing puzzles with my mom. Every Christmas, she gets a puzzle from 'santa'. We always spend a couple hours or more laying it all out on the table and putting it together. It becomes addicting, and we end up spending lots of time doing it until it is finished. But it is always full of good conversation and laughter.
Thank you for the chance at the giveaway-
bairdism99 (at) yahoo.com
Oh I hope my comment makes it in time. I saw a link to your blog and I am glad I followed it through. I would have to say that my favorite memories around the table would have to include Thanksgiving (of course). I can always imagine the taste of the home cooking when I see the table all decorated for the holidays. The other thing that I recall, is making giant 'Forts" under the table and draping sheets across the sides to make it totally secretive. Fun times for sure! Please count me in for the giveaway-
ReplyDeletezippyfoot (at) hotmail (dot) com
When I was about 5 or 6, my parents got a new dining room table. This one was ROUND. The idea was that there wouldn't be anyone sitting at the head of the table. We were all one family working together, eating together. We maintain the tradition in the next generation, at our round kitchen table.
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