So take a look at the table where you have your meals. It could be a dining room table or a kitchen table, depends on your point of view. At our house it is just “the table.” Some households have both a kitchen and a dining room table. But I am talking about the table you frequent most often. The one that has the most food spots on the floor under it!
I clean our table off when we have company coming over. Even if is just for a short visit of an hour, but especially for the overnight visitors. “The table” is the meeting place. The gabbing place and, of course, the eating place. So what you leave on your table to welcome guests is like your calling card of sorts.
Now when it is just us at the table we tend to have every corner, OK, every rounded edge, jam-crammed full to capacity. So much so that we have to push the piles off to the side when it’s feeding time at our zoo. Pens and pencils? On the table. Sweetener for my tea? On the table. Salt and pepper? On the table. Toothpicks? On the table. Then of course, stamps, tablets and note pads, mail, books, magazines, calculator, laptop — all on the table.
Table décor differences add to our individual uniqueness. I have seen some wonderful flower arrangements on tables when I have visited friends. One time this lady I visited had this amazing big crystal clear solid glass ball that had a bouquet of flowers encased in that eight inches of blown glass. It must have made an impression on me because it was a very long time ago — like 30 years, and I can still see it in my mind. I wonder sometimes if she still has that wonderful centerpiece. Probably stuffed away in a closet or maybe even sold on a yard sale and moved on to someone else’s table to entertain some other friends. It’s that all-encompassing circle of life thingy.
I have seen tables where a box of cereal seems always out and ready to meet a bowl. My other half once visited a family where a gallon can of peanut butter was served at the table. He likes to embellish the story. It was a big family, he’ll tell you. Lots of kids and there were, as he goes on, at least 10 butter knives sticking out of that can. With several jars of jams and jellies and half-eaten loaves of bread. Oh, he can go on for quite some time about that table. But to see where he sits now — he hasn’t got much room to compare to.
When I know company is coming I, like I assume most women do, readjust the house. One of those readjustments includes de-cluttering our table and then choosing just what little thing I leave on the table for the entertainment of my guests.
I have in the past left some of those head games that you can pick up at one those weird little shops hidden in the nooks and crannies of malls. I bought the one that is a triangular piece of wood with 12 holes and 11 pegs and you are supposed to jump one peg over the other until you’re left with just one peg. That is a wonderful goodie to leave on the table.
You don’t have to go overboard with this idea. I have set some paperclips out. A deck of cards. A box of greeting cards. Even two wooden spoons.
Some may think this is just a weird thing to plan and do. But how many times in your life have you sat at a table or even across a desk and not picked up something — anything laying on that table or desk? I’d bet more often than not we have all at least touched something laying there. It shouldn’t be a stretch to think that those things you picked up or touched were actually thoughtfully set out to amuse you.
But recently I found a really interesting thing to put on our table. I had, on a desk I recently vacated, a little snow globe with Mickey Mouse perched inside. It is only about two or three inches tall, but you can pick it up and shake it and make it snow this glittering snow all over Mickey. Then at Christmas I came across another little snow globe with a reindeer and presents sliding down a pile of snow, forever encased in that globe. Shake it and just like its December, it snows all over that happy scene. These two globes are now sitting on our table. Amusing me and anyone that sits to visit.
These may just be the best of all the things I have ever put out. They just give everyone a smile. And isn’t that what we are usually looking for? What’s on your table?
Trina lives in Eureka, Nevada. Her book ITY BITS can be found on Kindle. Share with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com.
