Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

During the winter, while your home is cozy and your schedule tends to slow down a bit, invite someone over for dinner! It’s a great time of year to open up your home and gather around your table. It’s also a great way for your kids to practice their manners and to teach them about hospitality...The art of inviting someone in to your sacred space called home and make them feel welcome. This is a life skill and you can make it fun while your kids are “catching” the idea! You don’t even need to “teach” them. They can see it take place before their eyes.

Sharing a meal with someone is so special! It’s something that we’ve been doing for hundreds of years! Unfortunately, this is becoming a dying art for many of us. But it doesn’t have to be! I think mindset is an important part of this! Don’t wait until your home is perfectly clean or you have the most gourmet menu planned! That most likely will never happen! Invite people into your home, not to show off your home or your culinary skills, but to just be TOGETHER! To enjoy “community”! Food tastes better when eaten in the company of others! That’s why I’m such a big proponent on eating together as a family! But that’s for another blog post! 🙂

In our busy society, there are many people that feel lonely now more than ever! In fact, there was a recent study done by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that stated that more than one out of every three adults aged 45 and older feels lonely! And what’s really interesting is that according to a UCLA Loneliness Scale, the loneliness scores are highest in people between the ages 18 to 22 years old!

So invite your favorite teen(s) or adult(s) for a home cooked meal and some laughter and great conversation! A great way to get to know people on a deeper level, is to have them over for a meal. Maybe there’s another family in your child’s class that you want to get to know better…Invite them over for an easy weeknight dinner! Invite some friends from the gym over for Saturday morning brunch after your workout class! Or one or two families from church over for lunch after church on a Sunday morning! I usually find if you’re inviting someone that you don’t know well, invite at least two people or two families. You’ll be getting to know your new guests and they’ll be getting to know a few new people as well!

I find people enjoy bringing something to share, so if you’re so inclined, assign something for them to bring. Maybe you could ask them to bring a dessert or a crusty loaf of bread.

Order in! If you just don’t cook or it seems overwhelming, then don’t! Order pizzas from your local pizza delivery guy and call it a night! The point is to eat TOGETHER! To share laughter and conversation while eating delicious food around a table!

So start thinking about who you want to invite over and send them a text today! When it’s on your calendar, it gets done! I hope you take this time of year to slow your roll a bit and enjoy the company of someone new! Bon Appetit!