It's no secret 32 bodies (11 of them under the age of 8) makes for beloved chaos in an open plan living room/dining room/kitchen split level home. When we originally moved to Alaska, family gatherings were 14. God has blessed us and in 7 years we have grown to 32! That is amazing! More than doubled! and we had fretted we'd NEVER have grandkids as our friends started having grands. We've looked for good ways to use the space as the family has grown. Summer and fall is EASY. We have a great yard with lots of things to do and explore. Winters have been more of a challenge.
This year our children have loved me well! By the time they had all signed up to bring food I only HAD to do a turkey and a salad. Carrie and Arielle had said they planned to come early to help set up, clean, whatever. That gave me time to think.
I told Michael I thought it was time we put some tables downstairs as we'd outgrown the through the dining room and across the Living room plan. We discussed pros and cons most the week. We LIKE having everyone at the same table. The ever-lengthening table really isn't conducive to conversation however with some people at the front of the house and spread through to the other side and AROUND.... In prep for winter gatherings, we had begun talking about renting out a church hall or the train depot monthly...but that involves a lot of moving parts we didn't have energy to engage. We had the luxury to continue to THINK as our brains were free from shopping lists, grocery trips and cooking for three days.
I woke up this morning with a thought....Our basement has 3 rooms, a bathroom, the laundry room but the central area is a second kitchen and family room. We haven't used the kitchen as a kitchen since CoRielle moved out four or five years ago. I DID have tables with pantry items organized in the space and a craft table. WHAT IF WE MOVED THE PANTRY AND FURNITURE OUT? We'd have one big multi-purpose room. We could set 4 tables and 2 kids tables in the space. At this point I thought the food would be upstairs and we'd have to go up and down with food....we ended up moving the pantry. This allowed a buffet table by the "warming oven," and plenty of seating space.
Michael was game. We moved the pantry. He had to run to an appointment. I moved the furniture - all stuffed into the spare oom and it's narrow hallway.
The bachelors had told me they were bringing 2 televisions and a bunch of Nintendo controllers for the kids to play with downstairs - their suggestion for curbing the chaos. I let them know the basement would be set up to eat in, then we'd take table down and play a family game and then set up the tvs and games.
Nolan texted to ask if we would like him to come over and help move tables and chairs. YES. I was sure we HAD time to do it all, but I knew Michael and I were already feeling back strain from moving the 50lbs of flour and oats around.
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| Spare Oom before the furniture moved in |
Michael came home with a small table to move the freeze dryer to so that table could be utilized, and a highchair to put together. We'll probably get another one from a thrift store if we find one cheaper. This one was reasonable. We have 2 2yo's and 2 7–9-month-olds so two highchairs won't hurt. Nolan put the highchair together, helped Michael carry the chairs in from my van, and assisted us in settling on an arrangement and then setting it all up.
I went on a snowy trek across our yard to find the kids' picnic table. Our guess is Trudy and maybe our three 4 year olds can sit at it? Arielle is bringing another table for the 7 and 8 year-olds. Liv will sit at a big table and if Kaelyn and Rylin are with us, they will too. We've got a plan. LOL
The other kids table goes to the left of the tables you see below, around the alcove where the picnic table it.
