Dinner Diary: 31/52

Week 31 of Having People Over, and this week my whole family came over.

My parents, my sister Kylie and her three kids, and my brother Cole with his wife Hannah and their two boys were all in town for a stretch of Southern California summer, which almost never happens given that we’re scattered across New York City, Denver, Utah and here. Cole’s birthday was the week before last, so we gathered to celebrate.

When I asked Cole what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he said he’d just seen last week’s Dinner Diary about the Hot Honey Chicken Sliders and he wanted to try them. Done! Especially since we dropped that meal off to my niece Megan last week and didn’t actually sit down and eat it. So the menu was largely a repeat of last week, and I didn’t think twice about it.

Hot Honey Shredded Chicken Sliders, Carolina Coleslaw, Street Corn Pasta Salad, and a Peachy Basil Boursin Dip to start. My mom made Cole’s requested confetti rice, a family favorite, and I jumped at the excuse to bake a homemade funfetti birthday cake (I never need much convincing for that!)

Cole just turned thirty-three, which is funny to type because I was nine when he was born and some part of my brain still thinks of him as my baby brother. He is decidedly not a baby. He has a wife, Hannah, who we adore, and two little boys of his own: Kit (2), and Felix, who is going on four months and is in that perfect baby stage where he’s calm and cuddly and just starting to giggle and look at you like you’re the most interesting thing he’s ever seen. We all took turns holding Felix and nobody wanted to give him back, cousins included. My parents are up to nine grandchildren now, which is a number that still catches me off guard when I say it out loud.

We sat outside in the perfect summer evening and went around the table saying something we love about Cole. It was one of those simple, unplanned moments that ends up meaning more than anything you could have organized.

And then Sunday morning, before the dinner chaos, we got the news that my Grandpa Jack had passed away unexpectedly.

He was ninety-five. He was healthy and sharp and had been working at his real estate office all week, the one he still ran himself, because that was Grandpa Jack.
His passing was unexpected in the way that ninety-five can still be unexpected when someone is that vibrant and present. I truly didn’t think he’d ever go. And somehow, in the middle of what was supposed to be a birthday party, we found ourselves scrolling through old photos, trading stories, and holding each other through something we hadn’t planned to feel that day.

My Dad joked that Grandpa Jack was probably already up there doing real estate deals on stars and clouds. Second only to his family, Grandpa Jack loved real estate and doing deals. My Dad actually ended up missing dinner as he hopped on a flight to head home and help with the affairs of losing his father.

My mom stayed and we leaned on each other, and the kids, blissfully unaware of most of what the adults were processing, ran around and giggled and reminded us that life keeps going in the most beautiful way.

There’s something I keep coming back to this week. We were all together. Considering how spread out our family is across the country, the odds of that happening on any given Sunday are slim. But there we were, all of us, exactly when we needed to be.

Cole’s birthday was still celebrated. The sliders were still delicious. Felix still got passed around the table like the tiny celebrity he is. And we also made space to grieve and remember a man who set a very high bar for how to live. In his honor, I’ve committed to re-reading his favorite book, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. It feels like exactly the right thing to do.

Grandpa Jack, we love you. We hope you’re doing deals up there.

Still always happy we hosted.

See you next Sunday at 5.

xo, Kelsey