Re: Navy or YMCA - I typed several answers to that but canceled them all. I'm leaving that one alone!
Re: fine restaurant - we'll go to Chez Panisse cafe upstairs first. It's much more casual. And we'll go at lunchtime. But not this year...
Re: how they got the interest in table setting - must have been from all those dinners at my mom's house -she takes them one day a week after school, feeds them and brings them home after dinner. Frequently my parents will have other guests as well and then they're all in the formal dining room, so the kids get plenty of practice at proper meal protocols. They've clearly been paying attention to the details at her house. I've just been slapping plates on the kitchen table with little ceremony.
This is why it really takes a village to raise a child - my life has been too hectic and stressed out for such things, but the grandparents stepped in. It didn't occur to me to say - hey, since I'm going to be in treatment for cancer for a year and then go to grad school, my table service will be haphazard to non-existent, so would you please make sure the children learn some decorum?
But it worked out that way anyway. Thank God.
Leila
