posted 12-03-2013 08:44 AM            

We just got back from a trip to see our children and grandchildren for Thanksgiving. “Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother’s House” is not as much fun as over the interstate to children’s homes.

My daughters seem to have picked up my wife’s love of china as our eldest just found a new set of pretty china with napkins to match. The silver is Francis I by Reed and Barton.

posted 12-03-2013 10:53 AM            

A couple of friendly suggestions if you want to get all formal and such in the future:

The standard way to set the glasses is from right to left: red wine (the smallest size glass), then white wine (the intermediate size), than water (the largest). If you will have just one kind of wine then you can skip the red or the white, depending. Though if the main course will be turkey, then of course you would want to have the white if there is only one wine.

The forks are fine if you are having your salad European style with the salad after the main course, but if you enjoy your salad American style by eating it before your main course the salad fork should be on the outside since you start on the outside and work your way in.

If you are going to have some tasty desert like pumpkin pie or such, there should be a desert fork going across above the plate with the tines facing left. Or if the desert will be eaten with a spoon the desert spoon should go there.

posted 12-03-2013 10:58 PM            

Thanks for suggestions Kimo I will past them on to my daughter. With all the grandchildren at the dinner table and all the cooking she did I don’t think being formal was high priority with her. The children had sparkling cider and the adults had Champagne – glasses were a mix as Katherine does not have a complete set yet.

Luckily Francis I shows up on silver scrape dealer’s tables in Atlanta as it appears that even with the decline in the price of silver some people are still selling it and she does have quite of bit of that pattern. Park1226, china seems to be following the same path as silver as my daughter recently bought the Brittany china at a yard sale. She was really happy with the tablecloths also.

My daughter cooked a turkey and had more trimmings than were wise – but nevertheless I tried everything. I added a picture of the dessert table and the serving table. I should have taken a picture of serving table after the food was on it, but forget to do it.

Pardon me if I add one more picture. We stopped in St. Louis on the way home and saw Joshua Bell play with the St. Louis Symphony. There are many things I miss from my St. Louis days and going to Powell Symphony Hall is one of them. When I was growing up this beautiful theater was the St. Louis Theater and it was one of three or four theaters that played first run movies. The last movie played there in the late 1960s and Powell opened soon thereafter. It always sparkles during the holiday season and is still a grand place to visit.

posted 11-30-2016 11:30 AM            

I hope everyone in the US had a happy Thanksgiving. We always enjoy going to a daughter’s house in Kansas City for Thanksgiving after a stop in St. Louis to see another daughter. Grandchildren are fun to see and hear about their lives.