Pot-Luck

Most people have big family dinners on Easter, and for the last couple of years I had been going with Ian to his family’s get-togethers.  This year however, I decided we needed to do something a little different.  About six weeks ago, while we were finishing up our plans for the wedding, I called Ian’s mother and asked her about holding Easter dinner at our house.  I wanted everyone to bring a dish and have a sort of pot-luck dinner.  She loved the idea of having to cook only one dish instead of the entire meal!  I called Ian’s sister Meg and Suzanne and Donna, his brothers’ wives and they thought the idea was great too!  Then I called some of our friends who don’t do anything on Easter because their families have distanced themselves because of their lifestyle.  I told them it was nothing fancy, just a pot-luck and that I was making a ham.  When the guest list was finalized, I hadn’t realized how many people I had invited!

The Guest List

Ian’s Family:
Tom and Sadie, Ian’s Parents
Ben and Suzanne, his oldest brother and his sister-in-law
Elliot and Donna, the second oldest son with his wife
Meg and Roger, his only and older sister and her husband
Ian’s nieces and nephews, all eight of them, ages 3 to 15

Our Friends:

Tom and Benny
Diane and Stacy
Ron and Sam
Ray and Joey (a.k.a. “Josie”)
Max and Steve (a.k.a. “Sharon”)
Tyrell and Nathaly (a straight couple)

Now, Ian’s family is very aware of who our friends are; they’ve met more than a few over the years.  And they were all at the wedding.  But I need to give all of you some background.  You might remember Tom and Benny, Ron and Sam and Diane and Stacy from my posting on the New Year’s Eve party Ian and I hosted.  (Tom, Benny and Diane also spent time with us after Hurricane Sandy.)  Tom and Benny are our closest male-couple friends and Diane and Stacy are our closest female-couple friends.  In fact they were supposed to house-sit and stay with T.J. while Ian and I were on our honeymoon, but when Great-Aunt Sarah decided to stay more than just a couple of days after the wedding, they graciously understood. Both Ray and Joey are from the Caribbean – Ray from Cuba and Joey from the Dominican Republic.  Joey rarely goes anywhere as Joey and yesterday was no exception.  He was “Josie”, his preferred self.  Josie is such a girl that if you didn’t know she was sporting junk between her legs you couldn’t tell she was born a he.  The same with Max’s partner.  But Max and “Sharon” are very different from Ray and Josie – Max is a big, burly leatherman with a shaved head and a mustache as thick as a shoe-shine brush and Sharon is this little wisp of a woman in a cocktail dress, high-heels and a bouffant wig.  They’re like a stereotypical college football jock and sorority girl couple.  But Ian and I happen to know that it’s Max who bottoms for Sharon!  Then there’s Tyrell and Nathaly, the only straight couple of our friends that I invited.  

Dinner was a smashing success!  There was plenty of food and way too many desserts!  After we ate, T.J. took some of the older kids to his room to play video games while the younger ones stayed near the adults and played with Buster.  All the women thought little Annie, the three-year-old was adorable. And when everyone found out that Meg was three-months pregnant, well, let’s just say the guys left the room, turned on ESPN and had another beer.

The party started winding down around seven; there were long drives home with overly-tired children and shorter drives home with wishful-thinking partners.  And everyone said how great a time they had.  Ian’s mother came up to me as I was doing some of the dishes from the coffee and cakes, kissed me and said she had never had such a wonderful family get-together and said I could plan all of them from now on, that she was “retiring” from her job as family hostess.  

And to think I may have to plan another party for Ian’s birthday on the 16th!  Maybe I’ll just take him out to dinner instead!