MUSINGS on PASTA NIGHT #1

Every Tuesday, at our house in Phoenixville, our family hosts PASTA NIGHT. It is simple really: we boil water, put in some variety of pasta noodles, and wait to see who will arrive to share dinner with us. Any number of people may show up, some whom we expect because they are regulars, others who come for any number of reasons. This past week we had 18 people sitting at our table(s). The week before we counted 21.

I consider this weekly ritual of hospitality to be a legacy of my parents. They often would find themselves spontaneously hosting large groups of friends whom my brother and I would invite over the house after church or after school or who knows when. I don't ever remember them balking at having so many so suddenly in our home hoping to be fed and entertained. We were blessed to live in a large home well-designed for entertaining guests. Yet the house would have been nothing had it not been for the gracious spirit of hospitality which inhabited my beloved mother and father.

In future posts I will review past and present PASTA NIGHTS and reflect on how hospitality has become a hallmark tradition in the Tavani family.