some enchanted evening; or, my boyfriend meets 20 members of my family in a single night. Part 1

The night before, that’s last Friday, Performer patiently went over many, many possible ways to serve food to 22 people with a minimum of trouble & expense. Blending his advice with my own inclinations, I did the following:

– bought crudites, dips, 2 simple cheeses, & crackers
– bought 3 quiches for older folk, planning to order pizza for everyone else
– bought fruit & Halloween candy for dessert
– bought soda & juice; already had wine, 3 reds & 3 whites

Performer is used to feeding large groups of people, and the plan worked well.

* * *

Performer came over at 3:30, 2 hours before everyone was due, to help out: he cut red peppers and strawberries and did other little chores.

My mother & older child were supposed to arrive early, but C1’s train was late, so there was no initial tete a tete a tete. First to arrive were my uncle and aunt (more precisely, his third wife, who is I guess a sort of aunt, though he is long-divorced from my father’s sister; you know, one of those ambiguous extended family situations such as P & I are in ourselves), but soon came his oldest son plus son’s second wife plus her children by her ex and 2 of his children by his ex. And soon after that two of my uncle’s children with their spouses and two children per family plus the fourth child and his wife. And finally my mother & older child: that makes 20 people in addition to Performer and me.

“Mimi must have a huge living room,” you’re probably thinking.

Nope.

It was crowded, but I was pleased that when (much later) I found a spot on the rug to sit and eat my dinner, no one stood up suddenly to offer me a chair. If someone had, I would have felt I was “looking my age.” On the contrary, people continued talking away and eating away, and stayed seated where they were (on the sofa, on a couple of upholstered chairs, on the piano bench, and — most of them — on the floor).

* * *

Every now and then, during the three hours when there were 22 people, I cast my eye over at Performer and saw that he was always talking to someone. Conversation comes easily to him — he’s a talker — and he seemed entirely relaxed. I was happy to see him engaged in conversation with my mother at one point; my older child was occupied most of the time with the little kids, her second cousins, whom she adores.

* * *

In short, there was no time to be nervous about this Momentous Occasion, My New Boyfriend/Partner, the successor to two husbands in seriousness-of-relationship if not in legal status, Meets My Family, because there was too much going on — people crowded on the floor, children putting halloween stickers on colored paper and drinking apple juices and, in one case, spilling coke, adults squeezing past each other to get back to the table with the food, pizzas being ordered and delivered and sliced and eaten, quiches being warmed, fruit being passed, candy corn being grabbed. I had no time to think about The Occasion.

* * *
(to be continued; you’ll want to hear about the digestion process, I’m sure)

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