Kid's Table

The kid's table is where stories are told and legends are built, it is where peas can dance on the end of a spoon and gravy migrates beyond the borders of mashed potato-land. Before Vegas stole the slogan, whatever happened at the kid's table stayed at the kid's table... unless squealing first held it's advantages or could negotiate a later bedtime. A tablecloth was spread over the card table Grandma had played bridge on last week with her ladies, the napkins weren't linen but, neither were our shirts. We used the silverware that had long lost it's matched partners, like socks in a dryer except in the silverware drawer, and the only china we sipped from was in form of a threat that straving kids from there wouldn't think twice about the lime green and cottage cheese concoction no one voluntarily put on their plate.

The lesson every kid learns after enough seasons in the kitchen is that growing up isn't something that can be stopped. The places left vacant by relatives that aged out of the system always needed to be filled at the "grown-ups table", and no one gets to stay at the kid's table forever, it is reserved just for childhood it seems. Later on, with napkins on one's lap and too many forks to keep track of, that laughter comes back, the whispers from the kitchen ride out on wafts of turkey dinner and stuffing and the kid's table becomes a part of the conversation at the grown-up tables... in that brief moment of past and present, two worlds collide and all are thankful.

This is a place setting made for the kid's table. Using decorated craft paper from the dollar store, a pencil, some white acrylic paint and a tan Bic Markit Marker, you can easily make everyone feel special and welcome.