"Instant Festive"

Today is my birthday, and this morning my acts-of-service-love-language self was overwhelmed by the food spread waiting for me when I rounded the corner to the dining room after our morning gathering as a family.  The food was delicious and the company delightful, but I realized that half of what is so special for me was the fact that it was pulled off without my involvement at all.  I didn't have to plan it.  I didn't have to shop for it.  I didn't have to cook it or execute it in any way.  And it was beautiful.  It was delicious.  It was festive.

As I've contemplated what made it feel so instantly festive as I came around the corner, I've come up with several things.  Some are not surprising.  One--of course!--is the fact that there was a candle.  Candles create "instant festive," in my mind.  I had a special china plate and cup and saucer.  Nothing quite says, "You're special" like bringing out the good dishes! But another thing that I think creates "instant festive"--and this surprised me!--is a pedestal bowl.


I absolutely love my little pedestal bowl!  We bought it just before Thanksgiving for $10 and the local TJ Maxx Home Goods store.  I wanted something to house the tossed salad (yes, tossed salad) my sister-in-law had requested with the Thanksgiving feast.  (I made a layered salad in the miniature trifle bowl, and it was delicious and beautiful!)  For the Christmas season, we re-purposed it as a centerpiece decoration on the dining room table with colorful glass ball ornaments of different sizes in it.  And now here it was, on my birthday, housing an exotic-looking fruit salad.  Festive.  It instantly added class and importance to the table, in my silly mind.

The breakfast was delicious.  There are plans for lunch out with my father and kids for lunch.  Tonight my husband and I will have dinner together at a favorite local restaurant.  Clearly, we celebrate around here around the table!

And if there's a festive bowl involved, all the better!