Sunday Funday Dinners

In Aug 2010,  I started this "Sunday dinner" thing. I invited a handful of friends to dinner and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Here we are at the end of 2022 and I'm proud to say my Sunday dinners are going strong. The guest list has certainly changed over the years. Added some new folks. Tossed other folks aside (for reasons I won't mention). Lost a few, sadly. And have what I call the "standard gang". My main peeps. They are invited every time and show up almost every time.

The "dinner" portion has changed over the years too. In the beginning I did the whole dinner. Everything from appetizers to desserts. And I liked that. I controlled the meal. I could plan accordingly and I could, of course, make sure everything "went together". 

But over the years the family wore me down. They kept offering to bring things. They wanted to participate. And a couple of them felt bad that I was forking out all the dough for the dinner. Even though I was ok with that. So I started allowing people to bring things. I tried to contain them though by assigning a list of "what was needed." So then every Sunday dinner, I'd make the "main dish" and I'd put the list out of Appetizer, salad, side, bread, and dessert. Or a combination of that. It's worked. 

I'd like to also add I got less "controlly" about Sunday dinner and begin to just enjoy how it turned out every time. 

This year I introduced themes. I LOVED the theme idea. It was a ton of fun to branch out of our norm and try new things. The "rule" was that if you were contributing to Sunday dinner it had to be in that theme. And surprisingly everyone followed the rules.  

We had this year's last Sunday dinner on this last Sunday. Mexican was the theme! The additional bonus of the December Sunday dinner is it's also a cookie exchange. Mexican food AND treats? Whoa!

The "standard" gang

The new "tradition" is to pick the next year's themes. And am I here to tell you next year theme's are going to be WOW! 

So if you want an invite, you gotta let me know. We might be able to squeeze you in.

I often wondered if Sunday dinners would run it's course at some point. The thing is, though, I think they might be here to stay. And I'm ok with that.