Don't Tell Emily Post

Rocky and I expect our children to be polite, and for the most part they have excellent manners.  Well, Billy does.  We're still working on "no feet on the table" with Alexa-and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  But somehow, after five years, I don't think it has occurred to either one of us to teach our kids how to set the table.  Yikes!  How did that happen?!  Our kids eat every meal at the table with no TV, but unless we are at Grandma and Papa's, they get rounded up from their busy busy lives, plopped down in their chairs where their food has magically appeared already portioned out and ready to eat. 

So tonight Billy helped me cook breakfast dinner, his favorite.  He loves to help cook.  And I thought maybe it would be nice to actually put the mail away rather than shove it aside, and have a nice Leave it to Beaver kind of dinner.  Billy set each placing (see, I don't even know how to use the proper terminology for setting the table!) and carried the food out.  Then he asked if we could have candles.  Geez!  We should probably do this more often, if simply setting the table is THAT big of a deal!  So we turned out the light, lit the candles, strapped the toddler into her chair after she grabbed the candles, re-lit the candles, put on some authentic castle music (Dave Matthews Band, of course) and had ourselves a Medieval good time!  And the new joke is "pass the peaches, please", which apparently is a hilarious alternative to "I'm out of peaches."

And, if you can believe it, the kids played much more calmly after dinner and have been sleeping peacefully in their beds for over an hour now!