Sunday Dinner

Every Sunday, as a rule, Donald and Lisa and the girls come to my house for dinner. It is one of my favorite times of the week. It's also the one day of the week when I always make dinner.

Sometimes the only time of the week when I make dinner.

Lisa and I both love this. For us it has become our family tradition. I like to think of when the girls are older.
It tickles me to think of them saying to friends, "sorry I can't do that on Sunday night, that's when we go to my grandma's."

Don't worry, I'm not so deluded as to think that, that will always be their response. But I think there will be times when it will happen, and, not just to get out of unpleasant Sunday activities, either.

I will give you an example of a typical Sunday dinner.

Depending on what I have planned for dinner, I usually start around 4:00.
Most of the time, I cater to Lisa and the things she likes best. Not because I love her best, although I do love her very much.

No, it's simpler than that.

Lisa is one of the best people in the world to cook for because she is so appreciative. Don is pretty good too, but he doesn't rave like Lisa does. For most of my cooking career, I have gone to a lot of trouble only to hear, "yuck, why did you have to make this?"

So you can imagine how wonderful it is to hear Lisa say "Susan, this is so good, I think you've outdone yourself again!" This is when Donald interjects, "I don't really like this at all."

Donald, my first child, and my, original picky eater.

Around 5:30 - 6:00, I will see them pull into my driveway. Alexandra and Lorelai, have made it a source of pride to always race mom and dad to the front door.
And since mom and dad have Elisabeth and all her accessories to gather up and bring in, the girls always do get to be the first to come in.

The front door crashes open. By crash, I do mean crash. They get a little excited.

Don't worry, my front door can take it.

The next thing I hear is "Hello? Hello?!"

I love hearing that Hello. Alexandra has been entering my house in just that way since she was two. Lorelai, a quick learner, has picked it up as well.

They are followed my Donald and Lisa and Elisabeth.

Donald puts down Lizzy, makes a token effort to make sure nothing is needed, and then races upstairs to my computer/TV room.

This is a never ending puzzler for Lisa and I both. Donald has his own computer at home. Likewise, he even has his own computer room. Lisa and I would like, just for once, one good reason why He is so drawn to my computer.

You would think that mine was made of solid gold and gave back rubs or something.

Lisa usually sits in one of the chairs in the living room and feeds Elisabeth, and if Elisabeth doesn't need feeding Lisa will read one of my magazines.

I love to see this.

I know that she doesn't have much time during the week to do things like magazine reading.

Oh yeah, I can't forget this.

There isn't really any nice way to put this.

Donald is a SNOOP.

And I, am a candy lover.

He knows this. He also knows that I have little candy stashes all over my room.

I try to have dinner ready within half an hour of their arrival. Sometimes it works out that way, and sometimes not. So Donald, every Sunday, will go into my room to root around for candy. And, as if that, isn't bad enough, he has trained Lorelai to do the same thing.

The problem with Lorelai though, is that she doesn't understand that there needs to be a certain sneaky factor in all of this. She doesn't get this at all.

So here she will come into the living room, right up to me, or Lisa, with a hand full of elicit candy.

And a great big smile on her face.

My line here is : "Lorelai, we haven't had dinner yet, so you need to stay out of grandma's candy." to which Lorelai replies, "can I have some M&M's after dinner." My next line is "yes, you can, but I will get them for you."

This is one thing at grandma's house that Lori has done without the example of big sister.

Nope, on this one Daddy showed the way.

But Lorelai, being the generous sort, usually makes sure that Lex has some of grandma's candy as well.

After dealing with Lorelai, I call everyone to dinner.

At the table, everyone has pretty much staked out their own place. Alexandra, sits next to grandpa, and Lori sits between Donald and Lisa.
I, sit at the head of the table. I guess I am the head dog on Sunday night.

After all I made the dinner.

Here are a few of the dinners I've made in the last two months or so.

Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy
Meatloaf, with baked potatoes..
Steak and salad and baked potatoes.
Grilled chicken and baked potatoes.

For some reason Lex and Lori have both decided that they are fans of the baked potato. So I make them quite often.

I hardly ever make dessert during the week, but for Sunday I do quite often. Of course I always have lots of ice cream. And of course the girls are aware of this. So if there's nothing else, the girls basically refuse to go home without having their bowl of ice cream.
Ice cream is almost always scooped up and delivered by either grandpa or daddy.

This is Lex's first year of school. Which means that they try to have the girls home by 8:00. It's a little sad for me because we used to hang out until closer to nine.

But Lex needs her beauty rest.

Summer is coming up though. And then we won't be under the clock quite so much.

Well there you have it. A basic outline of Sunday dinner with the Sorenson's.
The only thing that makes it better is when Jeff and Heidi and Abbey and Lindsay are here.

Double the family and double the fun.

But that is a story for another time.