“Forever, forever, you’ll stay in my heart
And I will love you
Forever, forever, we never will part
Oh, how I’ll love you
Together, together, that’s how it must be
To live without you
Would only be heartbreak for me”

— Burt Bacharch & Hal David

Borne out of a dream to align all the stars in my orbit, the movable feast is doing its job of pulling the entire family together once a month.

Everyone takes turns playing host, and today was Kara’s turn to name the gathering time and place.  This no-muss, no-fuss style of entertaining may prove my best idea yet.

Today’s installment  of family dining was a new take on an old favorite — Tex-Mex on a very blue Lake Hefner.  If only the weather had been just a touch warmer, we could have enjoyed a lake view out on the patio.  But perhaps it’s just as well we stayed inside — what view could be better than being in the midst of all those faces I hold so dear?

Here’s a quick spin around our table’s Lazy Susan to give you a small sense of the people behind the faces.

Sitting next to me is the love of my life, the guy who at one time or another, has managed to keep most of us sitting at the table anchored in reality; even our son-in-laws Joe and Glenn received his wise counsel before they took our daughters as wife:  “Happy wife, happy life,” said my husband of few words.

Then there’s Kyle and Kara — you can usually find my youngest son and daughter sitting close to one another — these tender souls appreciate each others creativeness — there’s even talk of writing a children’s book together  — perhaps some day they’ll stir dreams into reality.

Then, yep, there’s Kara’s husband Joe strategically positioned to watch whatever sport happens to be playing on television.  How does Joe do it? — he’s always one step ahead of the game, whether its keeping tabs on our table-talk or the play-by-play on the screen.

Then there’s our resident lovebirds Bryan and Amy — Amy’s just back from a month-long family visit  —   and Bryan isn’t even trying to hide how happy he is to have Amy back.  In spite of all that goes wrong in the world, love breathes hope that everything will turn out all right in the end, even when our distant vision is cloudy.

Finally we have Glenn and Kate, who keep me in stitches with their repartee — if they every get tired of practicing medicine, they can take their comedy gig on the road.

There’s always a few conversations going on at once, and I try to listen in on as many as I can since it will be another month before everyone comes together again.  Bryan is talking about his new accounting internship.  Amy is talking about Super Mario.  Kara is not feeling well —  probably another pesky childhood illness, a job hazard of teaching kindergarten.  Joe is talking about a quarterback he now views as a traitor since the quarterback no longer plays for Joe’s favorite team.  With Kate rolling her eyes, Glenn is talking of how he knows how to fix their broken toilet stool — but that he hasn’t quite worked up to it yet.

There are some sorts of table talk our movable feast hasn’t quite worked up to yet… like this impromptu sing-song conjured up  in a a familiar Julia Roberts movie, captured in the clip below.  Should the desire to sing ever fall  upon our movable feast, there may be many people —  and not just those sitting at our table —  who may be moved to say a little prayer — or two.   But oh how my heart sings in the truth of this wonderful Hollywood table grace!