Dinner Club Christmas

For the past five or six years (girls, how long has it been??) some dear teacher friends and I have enjoyed cooking, sharing recipes, and eating the delicious creations we make at our Dinner Club. We all love to cook, enjoy being together, and the combination of the two makes for many fun times. Every year our Christmas gathering includes our hubbies (though not pictured here). We all missed sweet Sara and her husband, Alex, last night who were busy entertaining family from out of town; and also my hubby, Jim, who was feeling under the weather. At one time we all taught at the same school, and all taught first grade. That's when this club came about. Even though now only two of the girls are still employed teachers (Angela teaches third grade, and Julie teaches kindergarten) we have continued to meet every couple of months to catch up on the "news" and to enjoy a meal together. (I should add that we all continue to teach in one way or another, too. Adri homeschools Cole, her second grader, and Annika, her preschooler; I work as a sub and have "Grandma school" occasionally for Joel and Silas; and Sara is constantly teaching her darling little girls, Caroline (4) and Maddy (2) at home).

Left to right: Me, Angela, Adri, and Julie (Sara is missing!)

We take turns hosting. The hostess's job is to secure a date for the next dinner club, prepare an entre' and provide the beverages. We all enjoy creating a theme-decorated table at times and often include a "favor" for each of the gals, though that is not an expectation. The rest of us take turns opting to bring either an appetizer, a salad, a bread, or a dessert which rounds out a wonderful meal. Each of us bring copies of the recipes we prepared which we then add to our wonderful Dinner Club Cookbooks that Julie made for each of us a few Christmases ago.

Our cookbook

At one point, Sara had the idea to add a DC Journal, passed from hostess to hostess, who records the menu and special events of the night. Somewhere along the way (??) the journal may or may not have been completed, so at times is a somewhat sketchy account of our gatherings. All in all, our dinner club has been a successful and enjoyable adventure for us. Hmmm, let's see . . . who is supposed to be planning the next gathering?? (I think it might be me!)