My daughter is in the process of planning her wedding. We are very close and so she is involving me in a great deal of the planning. Her fiancé works for a company that involves a great deal of international travel for him right now. Due to this he has not been able to help with many of the details of the wedding. They have picked out their china، flatware and crystal patterns. They also filled out their bridal registry together. I suggested that we involve my daughter’s future mother-in-law with some of the planning. Our son had gotten married last year and I appreciated being involved in the planning. We made arrangements to meet for lunch.
The three of us had a nice lunch together. During lunch my daughter was describing her china pattern to us. The store where they had chosen their china from was close to where we had lunch so we decided to go and look at their selection. During lunch the mother of the groom was telling my daughter that she needed to get some good china storage containers. My daughter explained that they have a built in china cabinet in the town home that they have purchased. She also said that she was going to use her china often so she did not want a china storage system that would be time consuming to access. The groom’s mother laughed and said that no one used their china more than once or twice a year. She said that her dishes have been in china storage for several years without use.
My daughter was surprised to hear this because she was used to how often I use my china. She mentioned this to the groom’s mom. I use my china very often. I store the china in the china hutch، but I do not pack it in the zipped china storage containers that many people use. My daughter has always enjoyed helping set the table with china and crystal. I feel that it is important to use our formal dinnerware often. I started doing this right after our wedding and continued the tradition as we raised our children. At least twice a month we required that the children plan to be home for a formal Sunday dinner. They were allowed to have friends join the family for these dinners so they could practice their table manners. Several of the neighbor kids have shared with me that they learned all their table manners at our house. I am glad that I put such an emphasis on the formal meals because my children know how to carry on a dinner conversation and they also know how to set a table. I cannot believe the number of people that go through the time and expense to pick out fine tableware and then put the flatware in a box and the china storage cases in a cabinet. I feel that if you have the articles you should use them.
