A Grandparents’ Day Tradition

Happy Grandparents’ Day to all the grandmamas and granddaddies out there!

We have a tradition of inviting our grandparents over for a meal to honor them on Grandparents’ weekend, and so yesterday Joel’s parents and mine joined us for lunch at our house. Having our big extended family together is always wonderful, but for this meal we enjoy  time with just the GRANDS!

As we began setting the table yesterday morning, Country Girl and I had no idea what we’d end up with because the day before our special lunch, a certain very bad doggie, who shall remain nameless (ahem, Barney!), ate the zinnias we were planning to build our table around. So, I went rummaging through the cabinets and found these paper placemats I’d bought last year at Lifeway, and used the bread and some artificial topiaries as the centerpiece (I know, the topiaries really are too tall, but once everyone was seated, I removed the them so we could see each other 😉👌🏻).

We started the lunch with a Caesar salad, and then served shrimp pesto fettuccine with roasted broccoli and garlic bread for the entree.

For dessert, coconut key lime pie went well with the shrimp dish. I know this time of year we’re all thinking about warm fall dishes and flavors, but with temperatures still in the high 90’s, this menu seemed fitting. I did place some pumpkin salt and pepper shakers on the table as a subtle nod to our beloved fall season approaching. (Come on, fall!)

We love our grandparents and appreciate all they do for our family! It’s not often that my side of the family and Joel’s side of the family are together in one place, so it warms my heart to see our parents laughing and telling stories around the table with our children there to hear.

Before I close, I’m including photos from previous Grandparents’ Day meals. Each year has its own fun theme! In addition to the meal, the kids made some homemade gifts for the grandparents to go with each year’s theme, but I won’t get into all that here.

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree:

This meal was all about apples and our family tree!

We served an apple-stuffed chicken dish with apple spinach salad, green beans, and rolls. For dessert we served apple cake with butter pecan ice cream.

 

Low Country Repast:

We took this meal outside for an evening of alfresco dining!

I prepared a meal taken entirely from Southern Lady magazine: grilled flounder (or grouper, maybe?), Parmesan-vidalia grits, and roasted okra. Dessert was a peach puff pastry and benne wafers with coffee.

 

Family Pioneers:

For this meal, we honored the pioneering spirit of our grands by going “homestyle” and using our “Pioneer Woman” dishes and table linens. This was a fun one for sure!

Dinner was pretty basic with hamburgers, baked beans, chips, and orzo salad.

For dessert we ate apple cobbler and ice cream.

I always feel a little funny about posting pictures of the food and tables I put together. I never ever want it to come across as boastful! But it’s a record of something we enjoyed as a family, and I hope it will be helpful in inspiring easy, inexpensive ideas for celebrating special people and special occasions!