Dressing for Dinner

In Jane Austen novels the characters always have to "dress for dinner," as if the full-length gown they've been wearing all day isn't nice enough to sit and eat in and then sit and cross-stitch in the drawing room for an hour.  I always sort of chuckled at that, but then I started to notice, that a lot of times we do the same thing... we've been at the beach or on the boat all day on vacation, and even though we're only having pizza or burgers outside for dinner, I go put on cute shorts and a sweater or tank top.  Maybe throw on some earrings or a necklace. 

Two days ago it was pretty humid here, and I was cooking dinner with Sean in a plain cotton skirt and t-shirt.  Cody called to say he was on his way home.  After Sean and I tidied up the family room I told him I was going to run upstairs and put my jeans on "so I can look cute for Daddy."  I also put a little make up on and brushed my hair. 

Yesterday we had friends from the neighborhood over for dinner, who have two sweet daughter, MK (4) and Vivi (1.5).  Sean LOVES MK, and tried to have Meg name her baby after her.  The night before they came over as I was putting Sean to bed he told me, "I have to wear my jeans for dinner tomorrow when MK comes over."  Completely forgetting my earlier statements, I had no clue why he was talking about what he would wear for dinner the next night.  After he told me about 2 or 3 more times, it clicked, and I said, "Oh, you want to wear a special outfit for dinner so you can look cute for MK?"  he said, "yeah, yeah yeah.  Oh, I know, maybe my jeans and my Mickey Mouse tank top." Sure, I said, do you want me to lay out your outfit for you to put on after nap tomorrow?  "yeah yeah yeah." 

So, sure enough the next day (yesterday), Sean didn't ask to wear his jeans and mickey mouse cank-top when he woke up, but he did ask to lay it out before nap so he could "change into it."  I was laughing to myself the whole time.  I actually had to run downtown to the office before he woke up from nap, and when I came home, he was decked out "looking cute" for MK. 

MK and Sean then enjoyed a romantic (LED) candle-lit (per sean's request) dinner at the picnic table in the family room.  We can consider it their first date, so I'm very glad Sean changed into his dinner clothes to "look cute" for it.