This is our first COVID Thanksgiving Holiday with mask-wearing, socially distancing, and immediate family only. Marla and I truly miss celebrating with family, friends, and special dinners in restaurants. The times call for improvisation and a new dinner table aesthetic. For our anniversary dinner this year I came up with a change of venue; I set the table in the breakfast room rather than in our dining room and it was a really fun evening.

Many of you know what kind of chef I am. The title “chef” for me is code for picking up a meal in a favorite restaurant!

An anniversary dinner a couple of years ago.

We usually divide the labor for a celebratory dinner. Marla has gifted skills in the kitchen while for some reason (probably from decades in the home furnishing industry) I love designing the table.

In November we wanted to eat out! This meant at the dining room table and not watching TV. I had just received a box of new lawn lights so I flipped them upside down and used them in place of candles. A little weird but effective.

The bonus of being in the decorative textile business was having thousands of unique fabrics to use for the creative table.

This was my most over-the-top dining table design!

Marla has inherited oodles of “party” DNA from her Mom and her Aunt Tootsie! Both of them hosted big parties with lots of wait staff, a chef doing the cooking, and musicians providing background and for dancing after dinner. Aunt Tootsie often hired entertainers as well! The biggest sit-down dinner party Marla created without staff was for 32 people! Guests brought a few items, but Marla did about 90% of the cooking all by herself!

A Christmas dinner a few years ago.

This was a formal party for Marla’s 40th birthday. Mask or headdress required.

Our daughter Lisa has this unique “party” giving DNA as well. This was a dinner table setup in her former home. Lisa loves to entertain!

Let the party commence! My Mom loved big Holiday family dinners!

A fabulous dinner at our daughter Stacy’s home! The kids sure look happy!

I really miss big parties this year!

2019 dinner parties.

I can’t to wait to enjoy dinners out with friends again!

We all miss gathering for big birthday celebrations! This was a party for Marla at Fleur de Lys in San Francisco. It is now sadly closed.

With an effective COVID vaccine, we will travel again and celebrate the joy and wonder of exotic locales…and just being alive! Marla is looking radiant at Riad Kniza in Marrakech.

I’m enjoying friends’ Dallas wedding with my Girls!

I love this celebration memory of my Mom with our son-in-laws!

Another wedding of friends in Reims. In my book, all BIG CELEBRATIONS demand lots of Champagne! A few dancing girls are a plus as well!

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.