Well, our dOnnOr last night was lOads of fun!
The dinner was traditional: bOgOls, hOmbOrgOrs, Opples, and OniOn rOngs. YOm!
New this year to the menu: for dessert we had dOnOts, a rare treat indeed in his household!
We looked over an amazing picture book called "The Material World: A Global Family Portrait". Peter Menzel photographed families all over the world with their possessions. It's a beautiful and humbling book. You can also see many of the photos at this web site, but the descriptions and stories that go with the photos make it worth borrowing the book from the library.
We had a robust crowd, with four of my kids -- including J-son, who brought a bike tire that needs repairing and that fortuitously provided additional O-shaped decOration for the dOnnOr!
We also had a good buddy of mine who works with non-profits, who told us about her experience raising money for charities. She brought up some good points about donating to local versions of national charities (for example, "Small City Habitat for Humanity" as contrasted with "Habitat for Humanity"). She also was very much more in the know than we were about implications for charities that have -- or have not -- pulled their events from Mar-A-Lago.
And why were my friend's observations so helpful to us? Because money for charities was of course the other activity (entertainment?) for the dOnnOr. The kids each got to pick envelopes from among the charities we support, and write the checks.
This dinner is a great way to remind my kids how to write checks (which in our electronic age, is becoming a bit of a dying art), in addition of course to reminding the offspring that it's fun to practice generosity.
I sign the checks, of course, and then enter them into the check register. And that's the biggest clean-up aspect of this annual event.
I love that the dOnnOr has evolved over the years into a way to get everyone in the family involved in our charitable plans, and I especially love that for me (selfishly), this makes the act of giving an even more joyous one.
The dinner was traditional: bOgOls, hOmbOrgOrs, Opples, and OniOn rOngs. YOm!
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| Notice the money tablecloth under the plate? I designed it for our tax-day dinner, but it's good to have another a use for this! |
New this year to the menu: for dessert we had dOnOts, a rare treat indeed in his household!
We looked over an amazing picture book called "The Material World: A Global Family Portrait". Peter Menzel photographed families all over the world with their possessions. It's a beautiful and humbling book. You can also see many of the photos at this web site, but the descriptions and stories that go with the photos make it worth borrowing the book from the library.
We had a robust crowd, with four of my kids -- including J-son, who brought a bike tire that needs repairing and that fortuitously provided additional O-shaped decOration for the dOnnOr!
We also had a good buddy of mine who works with non-profits, who told us about her experience raising money for charities. She brought up some good points about donating to local versions of national charities (for example, "Small City Habitat for Humanity" as contrasted with "Habitat for Humanity"). She also was very much more in the know than we were about implications for charities that have -- or have not -- pulled their events from Mar-A-Lago.
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| My good buddy, my grandchild A, and J-son. |
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| Choosing envelopes. K-daughter (in the middle) gets the most excited about this. |
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| N-son's favorite charities were all scooped up by K-daughter, but he still got to write checks to the NAACP and a local community action group. |
I love that the dOnnOr has evolved over the years into a way to get everyone in the family involved in our charitable plans, and I especially love that for me (selfishly), this makes the act of giving an even more joyous one.
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