I certainly wouldn't consider that china "dressy" nor formal....and it's not particularly expensive and although it's discontinues, it's readily available for not a lot>
China/porcelain if tough stuff! If that were mine, I would be in almost daily use. Don't know for sure, but in the newer patterns the gold is under the glaze and goes into the dishwasher.
Every meal is "china worthy"....but some china is more informal than others. I have a lot of white Havaland Ranson....it looks equally lovely on a linen covered table or one covered with a red and white checked cloth.
Use it for heaven sakes....what are you saving it for....you can replace pieces if some gets broken.

I use my sterling every day....to turn bacon and to eat oatmeal as well as to set a table. It makes me happy to use lovely things.

Yeah, I guess that's what I meant, that the pattern and style of those dishes looks "formal" to me. Maybe not to everyone, but to me it is formal. It is quite delicate really. Certainly not as formal as something with a lot of curlie cues, like something Victoriain or Rococo, but formal in a delicate way. It's very Japanese looking to me, and mom got it right after she got back from living in Japan for a year. But that is why I like it, because it is formal but not too ornate Reminds me of the Asian inspired parts of the arts and crafts / art nouveau movement, which are some of my favorite styles. But what I would consider my "everyday" china has no pattern, it is just cream colored with a gold rim, which is very worn. I'm editing this to say that replacement are expensive, by my standards.

I agree, use the china, remember your mother, and have a lovely time. What good is it to put something away and not use it or see it, just to keep it or have it? Definitely use the china.

As a disclaimer I will admit that I don't have good china, or any china for that matter. We use a relatively plain white Pfaltzgraff stoneware for everything and have no storage room for things that are seldom used. Elery does have some silver, but we've never used it so fortunately it doesn't take up much space. I do have one pink glass candy dish that my Grandmother got as a wedding present and it sits on the shelf in the living room, usually full of Hershey kisses for the grandkids. I don't want to put it away, I want to see it and remember her.

Annie

I'm not really afraid of using it, it just seems too formal to me to use. More of a style issue. That's why mom used it so seldom.

Edited to add a photo I finally found of it.

Not too formal, although it is formal in a restrained mid-century way. Classy and elegant.It's appropriate for dinner with friends. Mom had good taste.

That is pretty china. It looks versatile, meaning it can go more or less formal. I'd use it for your dinner. Unless the people are klutzes.

We have two sets of china. Our wedding china is Wedgwood Candlelight, a very plain, all white pattern with a scalloped spiral edge.

http://www.replacements.com/webquote/WW_CAN.htm?rplSrc=GPLA&rplSubEvent=151553&productTargetID=99587327814&dvc=m&rplsku=780117&mkwid=s99587327814%7Cpcrid%7C%7Cpkw%7C%7Cpmt%7C%7Cpdv%7Cm&gclid=COybxryVzskCFUZcfgodL9YJeg

We chose it because it was so plain, we figured we'd use it more often and that pieces would always be available. Well here we are 23 years later and this pattern is long discontinued, and replacement pieces cost a bundle. Fortunately we've never broken a piece.

Our other set was given to us by a dear old lady friend. She was very ill, and knew her children would just sell her china for peanuts or dump it at the goodwill, so she quietly boxed it up and passed it on to us, before she left this earth. I think of Charlotte every time we use her china. It is a gold rimmed, fancy pattern. I've posted pictures of it before.

China and silver are funny things. Some people have absolutely no use for either. We've been given sets of beautiful silverware by friends who only wanted machine washable stainless steel. We don't use them every day, but probably every few weeks. For everyday, we have some silverware (silverplate) purchased for, well, peanuts at a garage sale.

You can, by the way, usually find replacement pieces of china and silverware on eBay for much less (1/4) than you'd pay at Replacements.

I used to keep things for "best" then realised that I couldn't take it with me so use it. It's nice to serve your guests on such pretty china and you'll all get the pleasure of not only the food, but beautiful presentation. It doesn't matter if it's a fancy-pants meal or something homely.

John, now my curiosity is piqued, you must post a picture of your gifted china, since I don't remember seeing it It might have been when I was on hiatus. Anyway, it is a great story!

Here's me at Hanukkah at my old house circa 2009 with my friend Michael. That shows more my table style--stoneware and pottery. Then there is grandmas china, which is shown in this other photo of Thanksgivikkuh two years ago. That was grandma's plain set and it matched mom's. That's the beauty of having a plain set of china, it can work with a lot of table situations and holidays. But alas, the plain stuff is in deep storage. Like in a box in another city an hour away.

25 years ago I bought a Villeroy & Boch tea set (or was it a coffee set? I made both tea and coffee in that pot). Used it every day at least twice a day, sometimes more.

Broke the pot 6 years ago. The cream jug a couple years ago. All I've got left now is the sugar bowl, which I use only for guests because I don't take sugar. I also have 2 cups and 4 saucers. Got a lot of joy out of that set. What's the point keeping such things in a cupboard? Might as well leave them in the store.

Well, I can definitely see that if you are into flowered table cloths and placemats that plain china would look better....but try a solid colored cloth or just mats with the Lenox....bet you will find it's very pretty.

I have Mason's Vista in pink as my "china" even though it's ironstone. I have lots and lots of it, many serving pieces and stacks of all sorts of plates and bowls. But 20 some years ago we remodled the kitchen and I bought on big sale, a set of Mikasa fine china in a very simple pattern....just as a change. I love it because the porcelain is so light weight, I can lift a stack of plates with ease. And my lovely transferwear sits mostly unused because I like using china every day.

It is this gold rimmed pattern, lpink.

I could see myself using your china more so than my mom's floral pattern. It's been sitting in my cabinet since 2008 unused. I doubt I'll ever use it, but I took it because she wanted me to.

Dress the table with a solid color cloth and use the dishes.

Pink, I love the patern. Use it. Every day is china worthy if it reminds you of your Mom and makes you smile!

My mom never had china but she had a beautiful set of Red Wing pottery. She used it everyday and when she died there were very few pieces left which my Dad tossed. ARGH!

http://redwingcollectors.org/images/stories/ask_the_experts/ask_answers/mtomczik1107230832IMG_3098.jpg

I did inherit a set of Federal Glass Normandie dishes from my Uncle. I have added to it over the years and now have 24 place settings plus a multitude of serving pieces. This is my go to for large gatherings. Yes some get chipped or broken and I replace them as needed but it makes me smile every time I use it remembering my Uncle T.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/235766730/berry-bowls-bouquet-and-lattice-by?ref=related-1

Lastly my husband came with two 12 place settings sets of china. His Grandmother bought them for him becuase no household should be without nice china. LOL These were not expensive but are very pretty. I use these for smaller gatherings. Again I use these often because they remind me of DH's Grandmother and it makes me smile.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/311499326141?ul_noapp=true&chn=ps&lpid=82

http://www.replacements.com/webquote/INTWAK.htm#267271

On the flip side, I never use my Mother's stemware for wine, etc. It is not my style. I might use them to serve individual shrimp cocktails or a dessert but never as a wine glass. Well they are very small. LOL I prefer what my DH calls "cereal bowls with stems" i.e. the more modern larger sizes.

Beautiful photos, just so fun to look at! Thank you so much for sharing these stories and pictures!! John, that borscht looks beautiful!

I inherited WAY more than just the china too. So many lovely things, like my own grandmother's china tea set, which has a pink rose pattern, and one in gold from my great aunt that she got for her golden anniversary. My mom had very good taste and gazillions of lovely things. Crystal things, other china things, stoneware. I'm not at a loss for dishware or different "looks," Oh, and a whole closet full of tablecloths too, so yes, I have the plain tablecloth to go with the china. And many other things--linens, silver, the whole nine yards. I also have bits and bobs of china from my Baubie and great grandmother, which are very, very worn--chipped, crazed, finishes rubbed off. But I throw them into the mix sometimes too. That's why I miss my plain china, because I could use it with other odd pieces. Grandma's china will re-unite with mom's china someday when I get my many storage units sorted. I got most of my china as cast offs when my folks moved out of their big family home about the same time I bought my house. They used to come to visit me at my house and say, "Oh, that's what happened to that. Did you know that was your Baubie's?" to which I would answer, "Yes, because it is monogrammed with an "S" and her name was Sara." They were always surprised that I knew family history, I guess they didn't think I was paying attention.

Anyway, the reason mom' china has been sitting unused is because my folks just didn't entertain much, particularly fancy gatherings, as they got older. I am also inheriting a whole cupboard full of glassware for various types of alcoholic drinks, like cocktails such as highballs and daiquiris, and brandy snifters, etc.. Sadly, I do not drink anymore nor did my parents, due to health reasons. They have been sitting there for nigh on 25 years and I'm going to try and get rid of some of them at least.

I would go so far as to say that entertaining at home is a dying art. I mean you see a whole bunch about it on TV and in magazines, on the Web, etc. but in my social circle I'm not seeing folks doing it much. Some yes. I am always so busy working several jobs that I rarely have time to do it. I am actually forcing myself to do it this time. I'm mostly doing it for dad so he will have something to occupy his time besides moping around missing mom. I have plenty to occupy my time, even without throwing a dinner. But I really owe my co-workers.

Attached photo of mom and dad from Christmas 2013. It shows one of her lovely holiday tablecloths, but again, more casual dishware since it was just the three of us. Note creamed onions I made just for mom and pecan pie, one of dad's favorites. Dad insisted on putting out that ratty foliage piece, because my brother had sent it from Germany about two years previous! I finally got him to dismantle it this year! I got mom a gorgeous Christmas cardinal tablecloth runner and napkins last year for Christmas. I feel so sad that she will not get to enjoy them. They will go with grandma's china so I guess I need to get on that! One of the first things I am going to do is go through the china cabinet and pare it down. I've already sent a lot of stuff away with dad to his new condo. I am going to be living in mom's house for a while until I can get everything sorted through

Lovely patterns all!

I really struggle between using everyday vs use only for entertaining. My everyday stainless steel flatware is down from an 8 piece serving to 3 teaspoons/4 forks/ 5 tablespoons due to people (HG) throwing them in the garbage. This scares me that my Francis I Sterling would slowly disappear the same way.

Am I the only one who has flatware disappear?

Well, since I'm a 50's person, that china doesn't seem formal to me; except for the gold band. In any case, I think a dinner with friends for whatever reason is a celebration and calls for nice china.

I am a use it or/and lose it person. We have a nice solid cherry dining table. It now has a two inch spot where the finish got damaged with solvent, but if it had been covered, then we would never see the beautiful wood.

OTOH, I feel for you about replacement costs. I like china and we have three sets. A few years ago, before everyone on e-bay began to believe that every thing they had was a valuable art object, one could get a reasonable addition to a set of china for low price except for the shipping cost. I just checked e-bay re. your china and find that it is even more expensive than my 40's Havaland set even though yours was made from the 50's into the early 80's. If it were me, I would keep an eye on local auctions and the second hand stores to see if your set ever pops up. When they do, you can usually get a full set of whatever for $50 or so.

I use the antique Haviland Limoges set I have for all the family holiday meals and gatherings. I will not use it for a patio BBQ for safety reasons, but only at a sit down meal. I use my mother's crystal and silver serving pieces that I inherited, and the sterling flatware that family has bought me over the years, piece by piece. If this is a sit down meal, then I encourage you to use your pretty things.

Lpink...highball glasses work well for iced tea and coke, a Daiquiri glass works well for many things...I bought 8 cheap ones at the $ store once for a cold creamed pea soup one Easter. A brandy snifter works well for berries with whipped cream, or floating a single rose. Don't get rid of them just because you don't drink.
And Mustangs, we have rules in this house....never EVER does a piece of silver sit to soak in the sink with the disposer....and after every big gathering, I count. Not to say I didn't find a soup spoon in the sand box and a salad fork in the compost pile when I turned....amazing how that silver showed up in all the rotting leaves and worm castings! LOL! I had a guest show up at my door at 8 AM after a very late New years eve with a spoon, because he had put his silver ware in his pocket at the buffet and not used the spoon and he knew I would be counting.

There's a t-shirt I've seen in gift stores that always makes me smile which reads, "Life Is Short - Use The Good Dishes".

I think your Mom's dishes seem more formal to you than to us because you have the association of them being used for special meals. That, and because they may seem more delicate than they are because you've used pottery and stoneware. And in recent years we've all become accustomed to seeing mugs in place of cups.

The foliage pattern doesn't read fussy to me at all. I think it would be perfect to use for most meals if set on a plain or quiet patterned tablecloth.

Yeah, if I didn't already have four or five other sets of glassware for drinks. And special glass footed parfait dishes, and footed little bowls for puddings and other cool desserts, and crystal bowls for cold soups or fruit salad, and special rose bowls. I'm not going to get rid of anything that I could possibly use. I am quite the hoarder of "stuff" as it is!

Laurie, USE THEM! This holiday meal seems like the perfect opportunity to put them to good use. I hear you about the formality issue, but really other than the gold band, these are perfect for the occasion!

On Thanksgiving I took some crudities in a beautiful oval glass dish that I remember my mother using on multiple occasions. It served a dual purpose to honor her memory at a holiday gathering and it was the perfect size for the food on the table. Just do it! It will conjure up warm memories and set a very pretty table.

I don't use my sterling set(s) much at all anymore. DH and I found the set (Reed & Barton's 18th Century) to be too light compared with the 24 place settings stainless set that I use for everyday from Costco! I don't recall the name, but my china is a set by Minton that's not very formal-- just a lovely blue and white rimmed pattern with a silver band. I try and bring it out now for the holidays, although my everyday Villeroy &Boch is just easier to use. I love having china for everyday. It's much lighter and doesn't chip like stoneware.

I like using the best china for every day, but I do not use my sterling silver because the pattern is somewhat baroque and not to my taste. I bought a sterling set of four dessert forks and six dessert spoons at an antique shop on La Brea that had just come in from an estate sale, and they are from 1934 (date stamped on the back) in a nice Art Deco pattern that I love. I paid less than the value of the metal as scrap, for some reason - maybe because they were tarnished when I bought them. I would use those every day if I had a full set. I might start using the silver I have in the near future, as otherwise it just sits around, and that is somewhat sad. My mother left it to me, and so it will remind me of her.

I like using the best dishes for every day, but I do not own anything severely fancy any more, except for a set of Limoge tea cups and saucers, and they are a different style from my Art Deco dessert spoons, but they do go with my regular silver.

When I was a child, I used to have tea parties with my sister and use antique demitasse cups and sauces than my great grandparents had brought with them from Alsace. My grandmother had inherited those, and I loved using them.

I use crystal almost every day as well, or whenever I have wine with my meal. Kevin uses the fanciest hand-blown glassware for every day, and that way he gets to appreciate it more.

We have separate dishes for outdoor use, however, and I have a collection of wooden trays for taking meals to the pergola.

Chag Urim Sameach!

My "best" dishes are in the kitchen! They're not fine, but my fancy, blingy company dishes are cheapy cheap cheap. This doesn't compare to the discussion of heirloom, though, being cheap the fancy ones can't go in the dishwasher, like a lot of heirlooms, but I do use different dishes for different kinds of meals. Top of stack kitchen dishes for just us, or with a really really casual drop in. Bottom of stack kitchen dishes (the really pretty ones we don't use a lot) for a friend stopping in for lunch. Casual party dishes (all different solid colors, sort of the look of mixed Fiestaware), including glasses and flatware for casual company up to a dozen. The gold trimmed fancy stuff comes out for Seder, which is sit down for dozens. For outdoors or cocktail, I use nice looking disposable/unbreakable, mostly for safety.

I say stop hoarding for the sake of hoarding, and use all the special things, especially for small groups where you don't have to worry about breakage!

It was mostly just a style issue, but I am going with it. Mom has beautiful wooden salad bowls, etc. that I can use with the china to set a more informal table I just got some napkins tonight that tie in with some of the other colors in the pattern.

My MIL had pretty Golden Wheat pattern "china", that came free inside boxes of Duz (laundry soap) in the '50's. She rarely used it saying it was for "good" while she used her practical pink plastic Melamine for everyday. After a few years married to her son (at my ripe old age of 22) I asked her, "When does "good" come to the table? Do you really think that the Queen is going to visit soon?" She was crestfallen and I was totally, totally mortified in a few seconds later for being so rude to my new MIL. However, she came over several weeks later and gave me a half dozen pairs of pillowcases that she had hand embroidered. She said that everyday things are ordinary and that I was good enough for "good" everyday because I was not ordinary. Talk about feeling important as a DIL!!!! To that day until she died 50 years later she used a mix of everyday and good "china" for all our/her family meals, as I have. As time passed I inherited some very expensive china from various shirt-tail relations who had no heirs except me, Spode, Royal Doulton, Wedgewood, and the like. They were pretty and delicate but someone else's treasures and after my 50 years have very few left, BUT I enjoyed the heck out of them every time I had set the table and remembered them in each meal's blessing, even though to me they had no monetary value and I wasn't out to impress the Queen. I kept one little bowl from my MIL's Duz china that I put my ring in when hand washing dishes and remember her for the love she gave me. The Queen will never want to visit me, for sure, as my dishes are ordinary Mikasa restaurant ware, almost unbreakable and probably not inheritable.

Nancy

Oh my goodness, use it.

Stuff it: Millennials nix their parents’ treasures

My mother rarely used her good china - Haddon Hall by Minton. I think we ate on it less than a dozen times growing up. She got it as a wedding present, and friends completed her set while there were stationed in the UK. I love it and added pieces to it when I got married, I have a lot. And her silver, etc. We are using it for family dinners now, a lot.

Millennials don't want their parents china, silver, crystal, antiques, etc. This stuff is showing up at Goodwill. They can't even auction it off any more. So use it.

Boomers feel dissed by millennials but still love their stuff

My mother has a set of her grandmother's silver band china that has a blue floral motif. As kids, she would occasionally serve us our peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunches on it. It made the run of the mill special and I will always remember that! I agree with the other poster who said life is short. Use the good dishes!

This is from Anne Tyler's Back When We Were Grown Ups:

"my Aunt Ida gave me this beautiful, tall white candle with a kind of frill of
white lace running up it in a spiral. I thought it was the most elegant thing
I'd ever seen in my life. I saved it in my bureau drawer for some momentous
event, although I can't imagine now what that would have been. I mean, I was
only eight years old. Not a whole lot of momentous events happen when you're
eight. And Aunt Ida would ask me, now and then, 'Have you ever burned that
candle?'

"I'd say, 'No, not yet. I'm saving
it,' I'd say.

"Then one day, oh, maybe three or
four years later, I came across it in my drawer. It had turned all yellow and
warped; it was practically a C shape, and the lace was coming off in crumbles.
I'd never seen it burning, and now I never would. So ever since that time, I
light my candles any chance I get. I light them by the dozens, all over every
room, at every party from September through May. Multitudes of
candles."

Good quote from Anne Tyler. Plan for the future, yes, but live in the NOW. Use the china. It is unusual and gorgeous.

"Millennials don't want their parents' china, silver, crystal, etc" ...well that explains it! I showed my daughter my crystal and silver and told her it was hers one day. She said sarcastically "Woopy".

I think when you have seen something used by your parents and grand parents, it is more meaningful to you than if it was just something that was stored away. My grandmothers didn't have china...or rather not that I remember, one grandmother did but it disappeared during a series of deaths, divorce, financial problems and I never remember it. One great grandmother had beautiful flower sprigged Havaland...I wish I had a piece or 2 or it. My daughter has the china she remembers her grandmother using for special small family dinners as she only had 6 settings. She has the other grandmother's silver and loves it>
In most of my memory, my mother used the mason's pink transferware for every day and special occasions she used Franciscan Ware Desert Rose. After I left home she sold the Franciscan ( for $25 for service for 20, serving bowls coffee set etc!) and bought some new havaland which my brother took, I had no connection with it only ate from it once or twice.
But I cherish the dumb little fork my mother in law used to turn bacon. We love the things we remember being used, not something that sat in a box most of the time> So if you want your kids to love your silver and china, then use it and give them memories.

I have no children. But I agree, memories are made by the way you spend your hours of every day. I treasure Baubie's old beat-up china because we had Sunday dinners at her house every week and I ate many a bowl of home made chicken soup with home made noodles out of those bowls! And it makes me quite sad that I have no kids or grandkids to pass that tradition on to. It's a lot harder to say goodbye to the traditions than the bowls!

I don't think it is lack of desire that makes a lot of kids say "Whoopy" when it comes to their folks things. I always told my mom that I did not covet or want anything of hers. What I wanted was for her to have it and use it and enjoy it, which she DID. But I told her that when she was gone I was going to treasure her things, which I do. I think I know pretty much what mom loved and what was just incidental.

Also, my generation and the next is having a difficult time having the stability and type of home where you can have nice heavy-duty things, or delicate valuable things. I have moved over a dozen times in my adult life, and will probably have to move again. And most of those moves were from small apartment to apartment. China and antique nice quality furniture does not fit well with moving every couple of years like that. That's why I don't have nice solid pieces of furniture of my own. In fact, I am pretty much suffering from a major depression right now knowing that it is going to be a struggle for me to be a steward over my parents and grandparents things given my financial and social status. When Grandma and Baubie died, mom and dad just incorporated their things into their large, stable home. I don't have that.

Okay, I'm going to share a "glass" that was handed down from my grandma. I have saved it all these years because of the associated "memories" mentioned in this thread.

When we would tease her about her daily red wine in the porky pig glass. She would say in her Italian accent..."just a leeetal bit". Grandma brought this daily ritual from Italy; turns out she knew best about a glass of red wine everyday.

@lpinkmountain -- thank you for starting this thread! I have nothing to add regarding china (except that Replacements, Ltd. is a great company) and coordinating linens, but I can relate to the "ratty foliage piece":) I just like reading about and seeing pics of your family -- heartwarming!

@mustangs81 -- you are not the only one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I usually am pretty easy going about things, but my goodness I blew my stack one day and told everyone (didn't matter if they were guilty or not -- if they shared my last name they got it:) that from now on I WAS COUNTING!, they could fund the replacements, and oh, a knife was now around $40 and so was that very cool three-tined fork. Grrrr. HA! Thanks for letting me vent.

Cathy in SWPA

Cathy, I'm with you...one of my dinner forks is $84.95 at Replacements.

BTW, We had a Cooking Forum Camp in NC; one of our day trips was to the Replacements store; amazing.

Mustangs, is that your dad in the photo?

Laurie, that's my granddaddy in front of the grocery store he opened when he came to the US. I enlarged and framed the picture and made it the backsplash over my stove.

Great pic and love that you use it in your kitchen like that. And the glass..... sweet.

@mustangs81 -- $84.95?? Oh my, my, my. Makes you cherish the ones you have even more:) BTW, that trip sounds so fun -- I think I would have enjoyed the folks and probably many purchases.

Beyond our mutually disappearing flatware (which I believe half of mine is either now in the landfill or mixed in someone's flatware drawer at work) I love how you incorporated a very meaningful family photo in such an incredibly creative/useful way. Having my granddaddy share my cooking would give me great joy! Plus, that is just an exceptionally cool picture too!

This thread has been fun!

Cathy in SWPA

The title of this post reminds me of the sponge-worthy episode on Seinfeld.

Just another take on the topic, and not advice. I like dishes. My husband is totally indifferent to them, of record-breaking indifference, and in fact he breaks them frequently. He's our dishwasher and has plenty of opportunities. Even more infuriating is he totally doesn't understand why I get upset when he cracks or smashes an irreplaceable ceramic piece or a plate from my set of dishes I bought thirty-five years ago. My generally wonderful daughter is also a dish-smasher. So a few years ago I retired all that was left of my dishes plus my silverware. We took a trip to the local big store and bought plain, inexpensive, but nice-looking dishes that I could live with. The rest is sitting in boxes. By the way, yes, I will use it one day. But it was just too painful to see it all destroyed piece by piece in the face of general incomprehension.

Oh yes, to your point Melissa, it took me three days of washing everything by hand to finish doing all the dishes from that one Hanukkah dinner. Most of it could not go in the dishwasher, it was either too big, made out of something not dishwasher safe, or too delicate to take the banging around. Dad has very little grip left and mom was just too tired, so I know that was a big part of why we didn't use the fancy dishes later in my parents life at their house. The fancy china needs reliable kids or grandkids around to help with the clean up! But it was still fun.

3 days to wash the dishes for a dinner for 6?

It was appetizer serving dishes and plates, cups, etc, which was for six, dessert and coffee dishes for six too. Also all pots and pans from making soup, mulled wine, roasted asparagus, latkes and salad. It was wash, dry and put away, china all reorganized and in special wrappers. I don't live at the house. I washed 1/3 the night of the party, then went to bed, it was late and I was tired. Had to leave for another errand the next day, so did 1/3 the next time I was at the house and then stayed overnight and finished the final 1/3 in the morning. Sure wish you lived next door Linda so you could come over and help!

But it was a nice party, right? I hope so.

AH....so...It was a "catered affair"....what a pain! Would gladly have helped for some of the soup!
Reminded of one time when I was having a "simple soup luncheon" for my bridge club. Instead of the plated meal people usually serve, I made a big pot of soup ( forget what kind), salad, coffee and simply cookies for dessert. But when they all left, instead of just a plate with a meal on it and coffee and dessert, I had wine glasses, water goblets, soup bowl and under plate, on a dinner plate. There was a salad plate, and a cup and saucer....and then glasses for tea or soda while we were playing bridge.....I washed dishes into the night after they left at 4:30!!

The advantages of having kids and grandkids! Well, well trained ones, if you can get them! Even a SO will do in a pinch! If I had lived there, I probably would have been able to finish everything the morning after the party. Also, I spent quite a bit of time the next day dealing with an issue that came up with my elderly father, whom I am quasi caring for at yet another place. How I long for the stability of one home and one town that I live in rather than endless packing and being on the road. I can say from my perspective, one of the reasons china and other dishes that need to be carefully washed and stored are not popular now days is because folks are so busy, many working two jobs and trying to care for children and/or elderly parents and also many folks single and not living near friends or family, also moving around a lot to follow work or on the road commuting long distances, so just not having the extra time or energy. I know folks worked a lot in the past, but the constant moving I think has always been an impediment to having lots of nice, fragile things, as well as having the time to entertain. Back when mom entertained a lot, she was not working, she stayed home and enjoyed doing those kinds of things.

But still, yes it was fun while it lasted, lots of fun and I so wish that kind of experience was more available to me. It used to be when I just worked full time one job and lived and worked in one place, I used to have dinner parties quite often, as some old timers on here will remember.