Good Friends Together

Last night was dinner and a movie, which spells excitement in Seniorville. JuJu and Grace were coming as it was my turn to entertain.

There are things to consider when entertaining seniors. First, there is the time element. It is cold, and none of us like to get out in the cold and dark to head home. Perhaps I should just say that we don't plan on staying late on a cold winter evening.

We decided to try to adapt our movie viewing time to late afternoon. It was a long movie, complete with Overture and Intermission. Seriously. So, we started the movie and watched until Intermission. At Intermission we took our break and decided to have a snack... wine and pie. Good grief! Whoever heard of wine and pie? We are some seriously crazy seniors. We giggled a bit about eating our pie before dinner, but decided we'd live a little and try it. We could always have more pie after dinner. We giggled some more at that thought. MORE pie!

The pie held us through the rest of the movie, then I served what was a rather late dinner for us. We usually eat at five o'clock, and it was WAY past five o'clock. Thank goodness we'd had that pie. Personally, I think all dessert should be eaten first. I've said that when I get older, I'm going to eat my dessert first. Perhaps that was a start. Of course, I'm not old enough to eat it first on a regular basis. I don't know about the others, but I know I'm not old enough.... yet.

We had to wait a short amount of time for spaghetti to cook. Other than that, it was a matter of just warming the other food. I pride myself on being able to have a meal on the table, start to finish, in quick order. I've always been rather impatient with dawdling about in the kitchen and taking hours to prepare the food. When I'm ready to eat, I want it NOW. I can't really say I plan ahead much either. I just go to the kitchen and open the freezer door. Whatever pops into my head is what I fix. Thank goodness for thawing in the microwave. I call the process 'whirling'. I just go in the kitchen and whirl and see what happens.

I will admit to being slightly better prepared when guests come.... usually. There have been times when JuJu and Grace have come over that I've applied the whirling procedure, but they don't care as long as they are fed. It works.

After dinner the big question was asked: 'Okay, do you want more pie?' I laid it firmly on my guests. They wafted a bit on their decision as the idea of venturing into new territory competed with the knowledge that more pie meant more calories. Finally they said rather unconvincingly that they didn't really need (notice the word need, not want) any more pie. Pushing for a bit of history making here, I decided that having had wine and pie (a first) we should go ahead and have more pie (another first). I sliced a very small amount of pie as a finisher to dinner. JuJu and Grace have such good manners. They ate their pie. Of course, so did I.

I think I rather enjoy entertaining these seniors. We have no real etiquette expectations beyond the basics. Martha doesn't live here and isn't coming over anyway. We've all been though the years of knowing how to plan and prepare, now we are ready to just kick back and relax.

Our dinner and movie night was good. It was dark and cold, but not late, when we decided to call it a night. Soon the light will linger longer, the temperature will rise, and we seniors will happily stay a little later and enjoy being out and about. There will be more whirling and entertaining, that's for certain. Whether or not we continue eating dessert first, or with wine, remains to be seen.