Dinner: The Set-up

Step one was the set the mood and put it all together. We wanted it to look official, feel private, and be extravagant. We started by picking a dress code. As the chefs, Jamie and I wore black pants and black tops with aprons and as the waiters Mike and Ryan wore black pants, a button up black shirt, and green bow-ties with towels over their arm. 

Next was the set up. We moved the living room around so that the center of the room held a card table covered by a nice table cloth. We step up the table to hold cloth napkins, nice wine glasses, and a couple of candles. In fact the entire room was lit only by candles(that mood bit.) We spent a long time lighting 175 tea light candles which were placed in front of the fire place and then separated the rooms with sheets. Thinking back on the sheet ideas, if we had been thinking about it earlier on we would have made a couple of curtains to divide the kitchen from the living room, but the sheets did the job anyways.

We then started the Frank Sinatra and waited for our grandparents to return. We sent them off to get pedicures while we set up giving us about an hour to get everything put together and dinner started.

When they arrived home, Mike and Ryan were waiting on the porch ready to escort them in. Jamie and I parted the sheets as they were escorted to their seats and we started simply with some wine. Mike was grandpa's personal waiter and Ryan was grandma's personal waiter. They got a lesson in pouring wine and the night began. I must mention that we chose the words for the evening with great care. We of course pretended we didn't know them at all and the boys did their best impression of uptown citizens.