It sounds like a very special day indeed and wonderful that so much of your family could be there. Thank you for sharing this with us and I hope you feel the hugs that are going out to all of you from so many of us at the CF. Lee

oops - forgot that I was going to throw this one at you too. It's so delicious and the wine and pesto in it make it just a bit "special". It's one of our favorite meals! And everyone who's had it. And I use purchased pesto and marinara - so it's easy! Baked Pasta with Sausage and Tomato Pesto (Sol) 1 pound hot italian sausage, casings removed (i use half hot, half sweet) 1 onion, finely chopped 3-4 garlic cloves, minced ½ cup dry red wine 26 ounces of your favorite marinara sauce 6 Tablespoons of Pesto Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste 1 pound penne or rotini pasta, cooked al dente 1 pound mozzarella, shredded 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese 6 oz. bag baby spinach leaves Cook the sausage until no longer pink. Add the chopped onion and sauté about 5 minutes, or until translucent. Add the garlic, marinara sauce and wine. Simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce thickens. Stir in the pesto, salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9"x13" dish. Spread a thin layer of the sauce over the bottom of the pan. In a large bowl, combine the pasta, mozzarella and 1/3 cup of the Pecorino cheese. Add the spinach leaves, mixing to combine. Mix in the rest of sauce. Spoon mixture in prepared baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining pecorino cheese on top. Bake about 30 minutes, or until cheese is lightly golden. This recipe makes 6-8 servings. Enjoy it.

The only family we have here is Bobby and he lives with us. I love to cook so I have a lot of our friends over for dinners. They don't have family here either since they also are retired military and settled far away from family. When I have big meals here we often have 13 or more friends over. Sometimes I do the whole meal and sometimes I do the main course and they bring the sides. We have lots of fun and they share in taking home leftovers. Our weather is beautiful most of the year so the guys sit outside on the patio and eat and talk guy talk and the gals go in the dining room to eat and gab. Sometimes we have sit down dinners in the dining room it just depends on what we are having. All the gals pitch in with the cleanup which I appreciate.

When I was growing up in the '40s and '50s, we ate dinner in the dining room. Dad carved the meat and served the food from the china serving bowls and platters. He sat at one end of the oval table, and Mom sat at the other end. Seats were assigned for us 4 kids. We started with grace before eating. Mother baked our bread, and there was always freshly sliced bread on the table. For dinner, we always had potatoes and a choice of two vegetables, and meat. Sometimes we also had a salad, and on Sundays we had a homemade dessert. When we kids were all done eating, we could ask to be excused from the table, and Mom and Dad would relax over coffee. But we had to clean our plates, and many a night I sat there after everyone else had left till I ate the last of my peas, which I hated. The Depression was still in recent memory, and clean plates were the expectation. Moreover, my parents were concerned that I was just a little too skinny, I think. Dad held court at the table with wonderful stories of what his friends had been up to or vaudeville stories from his youth or current events too. We kids shared events that had happened at school. Our dinner conversations were stimulating and unique. I can remember laughing so hard at Dad's stories that I fell off my chair. No radio or TV was on, and no phone calls were accepted during dinner. We each had our own silver napkin ring that had been in the family for years and they were used on our cloth napkins. No food was put on the table in any kind of store package--milk was in a pitcher, jelly was in a little bowl, but then it was probably homemade too. Flash forward to my family. We eat in our kitchen at the large table built into the island. I don't use a tablecloth or even cloth napkins. Milk is available from the carton. I serve the plates from the stove and do not require the kids to eat every morsel from their plates.