# 190 - Entertaining with Trickery

Every year we have a large Thanksgiving celebration at our house. It's something we've done going back years and years. We've had up to 60 people in our homes for this holiday gathering. This year, we had just over 20.

For serving time, we bring out the long tables, metal chairs and we set it all up so that we can have a decent environment suitable for a Thanksgiving sit-down. Sometimes we use real glasses and dishware, but we didn't this year. Even so, we used real silverware. I keep a box that is heaping full of old silverware just for such occasions.

Another nice touch for our table is to have lace tablecloths set out. It makes all of the tables blend in together and each separate table that it set up...dining tables...a tea table...a dessert table...each one has a lace tablecloth on it, so it looks a bit like we've gone the extra mile for the presentation.

My husband's Aunt Normandy lives in Virginia, in the Washington, D.C. area. In fact, her neighbors are high Pentagon officials who were working in the Pentagon on that fateful day of 9/11 as one of the planes smashed into the building. She's an interesting woman. And, she's over six foot tall. Have I mentioned that most the women on my mother-in-law's side of the family are over six foot tall?

For a while there, we thought our Heather would be over six foot as well, but it looks like my side of the family had some strong genetics kicking in on her body to stop her growth at 5' 9" which allowed her to have a figure, even with height. Good deal.

Anyway, Aunt Normandy flew into Houston to be with us for Thanksgiving. and she was at our house as we were setting up the tables for our Thanksgiving lunch. I brought out the lace tablecloths and her mouth went into a big "O" and a hand flew up to her throat as she began to stammer, "You don't have to do all of this for me, just do things like normal, you shouldn't go through all this trouble as to bring out lace tablecloths!"

You can barely see Aunt Normandy's head of white hair
on right side at far end.

I figured that I might as well tell her the truth. Yes, several of the tablecloths are authentic lace tablecloths, some have been in my family for 70 years. Other tablecloths I had purchased on a trip to Mexico about 20 years ago and a few are...



See that hem? A couple of our lace "tablecloths" are actually old lace curtains. There, I said it, CURTAINS on the table.

I showed Aunt Normandy this one while pointing out the hem that's designed for a curtain rod, and I told her, "Don't worry, we give all our our guests this special treatment."

Her and I laughed so hard, then I put the curtain on the table and tucked the hem in under a real tablecloth and no one knew the difference.

And that's how you entertain folks, through trickery. It can be a pretty sight.