Easter Dinner Nametag

I wrote yesterday of my love for all things culinary. Gadgets and gizmos. Recipe testing, creating and sharing. Making food. Sharing food. Eating food.

The kitchen is my perfect playground.

As is my studio.

The main level of our home is entered at street level. As you walk through from the frontdoor to the dining room and then the deck, the hillside drops away leaving the back end one story up. In the walkout downstairs, the guest room and my studio  open out onto the backyard leading down to the river.

It is beautiful. Idyllic. A perfect creative space.

One of my favourite things to do for holiday dinners (okay pretty well any dinner where we have guests)  is to make place-cards, and to set the table all pretty-like. 🙂

The challenge this year is… well, it’s the one everyone is facing in these times of social distancing – we can’t gather around the same table to share in the family and friendly ties that bind us together.

So… we decided to get creative!

In order to give us a feeling of connection, we are having a Zoom dinner tomorrow with my sister and daughter on the west coast, my sister and daughter who live here and very dear friends who are always part of our special dinners.

And, to make it more ‘connected’, my sister and daughter here in Calgary will be contributing to the meal, as if they were coming to the house for dinner.

C.C. and I are doing the ham with sauce and dessert, my youngest daughter the vegetables and my sister the mashed potatoes. We will each deliver our portion of the meal to my daughter’s house by 2pm tomorrow in packets appropriate for 2 people. We’ll drop off our packages and at the same time, pick up the rest of our meal. At 6:30 MST, we’ll connect via Zoom  ‘at the Easter table’ and share our meal.

Earlier in the day, C.C. is organizing a Zoom with his extended family (he is one of 13 siblings). He’s sent out email invitations to siblings, his son and daughter, nieces and nephews — it will be fascinating to see how many turn up!  A family wedding on his side starts with 60 family members and builds from there!

In these times where we stand together in ‘flattening the curve’ by staying apart, technology is our ally. It is letting us ‘be’ together while in our individual homes.

And of course, given my penchant for making nametags for special dinners, I’ve been busy in the studio painting spring-palette-inspired name cards for each guest at our Zoom-in Easter Dinner. (The especially bright colours are necessary as it is snowing again!)

For those who are here in Calgary, I’ll be delivering them with the food tomorrow so that they can pick them up. For my daughter and her family in Vancouver, and my sister and her husband on Gabriola Island, I’ll be setting a place at the table for them complete with fine china, crystal, nametag and all!

It will be a different dinner than in the past, but it will still be imbued with the special ingredient that makes all our dinners so very heart and soul enriching and tummy-pleasing… Love.

A couple of more of the placecards — more to finish before dinner tomorrow!