dinner with the donnelly's | abby st. claire

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one of our biggest intentions this year is to have more people over for dinner. i've so enjoyed being able to cook for the two of us, but lately i've felt excited by the urge to share this love with others. particularly in the winter, where there’s such a need for the quality of healing that comes with sharing a warm meal together (with friends or strangers).

our first official dinner guest of 2018 was abby st. claire, who designed our logo. we were incredibly delayed in officially thanking her for doing that work for us, and we were so excited to welcome her into our home.

we made a kale salad with roasted sweet potatoes, chickpeas, feta, and dried cherries. we also had a beef stew with bacon, onions, carrots, and mushrooms, on a bed of spinach fettuccini. for dessert we had one of our favorite, weird chocolate cookies from our grocery store, essentially twix in cookie form, in addition to apple crumble pie topped with whipped cream. the whole night we drank mulled wine.

the most intriguing part about the experience for me was that i had never met abby before. alex had grabbed coffee with her a few times, but it was the first time i had ever welcomed someone into my home that i didn't know - let alone cook for them. i should say that i am also simply in awe of abby's artistic abilities and aesthetic tastes - so i was a little nervous to have her over, in all honesty, even though i knew she would be sweet and kind and appreciative and so incredibly happy to be with us in our home.

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our home is a work in progress (and will likely always be) so having someone over has a degree of vulernability to it. and sharing my space with someone i admire exacerbates this feeling.

normally, you wouldn't have people over until you're really good friends with them. i want to change that.

i want to have dinner with strangers. push ourselves outside of your comfort zone. meet new people. feel a little anxiety. have some genuine quality time with someone new.

our time with abby was full of long talks and laughs. I felt as though we all walked away with something new. the conversations spanned well into the night with no lull, on things like artistic values & nature’s to thoughts on life & love. it is a very specific type of person that can (or enjoys) sustain(ing) conversations in the deep end of pool as we did. it’s a trait I very much value. as it feels rare, i am incredibly thankful when finding someone who likes it as much as i do.

as moonbeam mentioned, abby and I have met on very few occasions. so for what could’ve been an awkward night, between people who barely know each other, was really a great night between good friends who hadn’t really gotten to know each other until then.

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everything flowed that evening. and we felt full, in more ways than one. we cannot truly express enough gratitude for her incredible talents and skills that she’s given us.

and are looking forward to the next dinner.