Family Dinner

When I was a kid, my whole family would sit down and have dinner almost every night together.  I miss that I don't get to do that with my family every night.  Andy's job and the way the business and this city is run in general, does not allow for most people I know to come home before 7pm.  This includes my husband.  That is way to late for dinner in our house.  Especially since the girls are usually in bed by 7:30.  Since we don't get to have dinner together during the week we make an effort to at least do it on the weekend.  When we do have dinner together, I realize why it might be a good thing that we don't get to do it every night.  It's usually pretty crazy.  Lana doesn't want to eat this, Sonya doesn't like that and Georgia is throwing food everywhere.  I usually end up eating fast or only half my food.   It's hardly the Norman Rockwell painting I like to think of in my head.  Of course if I remember correctly, most family dinners when I was a kid ended with my baby sister storming up the stairs to her room and slamming the door shut, for one reason or another.  

Sunday night we were sitting having our usual weekend family dinner.  Lana was refusing to eat anything.  Sonya was bartering with us about how much milk she had to drink before she got a "treat".  Georgia was eating most of her food, and tossing what was not interesting to her on the ground.  Lana finished her milk and she dropped her empty sippy cup on the ground.  Sonya got down and retrieved it for her.  Then she threw it down again laughing.  Sonya again picked it up.  Then they both threw their cups on the ground laughing hysterically.  

Andy and I were less then happy and warned them.  Sonya got down and got both their cups again but hung on to hers, heeding the warning.  Lana, always pushing the envelope, tossed hers back on the ground.  I picked it up off the floor to put an end to her game.  Meanwhile Lana was screaming, 

"My miiiiiiilllllkkk!!!!"  as I took her cup away.  I halfway turn around in my chair toward the counter behind me and gently toss the cup on the counter.  Because it was a throwaway sippy cut and because it was empty,  it was very light.  So it bounced on the counter, then off the  counter and right on to the floor.  The girls watched it fall to the ground and immediately burst into laughter.  Then Andy started laughing.  Since I was only half annoyed but mostly amused at the events, I started laughing as well.    

There we all sat on a Sunday evening as a family, laughing and eating or not eating all together.  I don't even remember what it was we had, but it was one of the best meals of my life.  Even better than a Norman Rockwell painting.