As a former preschool teacher, I was used to making messes. I was also used to making do with recycleables. I got free roll ends of newsprint from our local newspaper. Before everyone arrived I covered bare tables with newsprint and set out margarine tubs of old crayons. As guests arrived, younger family members began decorating table “cloths.” I suggested that they decorate their places and those where their older relatives were sitting which encouraged intergenerational conversation and broke the ice for second cousins meeting for the first time. When you share a purple crayon, you have to talk!
Deck the Hall
