Dessert first, yes please.

Dessert First, Please
Family is lovely and complicated but, at the same time, often predictable. Whether we are talking about holidays, a birthday, or a simple Sunday dinner, family get-togethers have a sort of rhythm. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents converge at the designated time carrying presents or covered dishes, depending on the celebration. The conversation moves from recent events and career updates to upcoming weddings, births, and promotions. Drinks are passed liberally around, and the laughter and noise increase. Then, as dinner is called, the family moves en masse to the dining room table. Grandma and Grandpa on the left, the host at the head, while cousins and sisters strategically place themselves in chairs near their favorite dish or family member. 
There is comfort in these rituals. Once the meal commences, I can almost always predict who will be in the kitchen pushing out the plated food, who will jump up to serve, and most importantly, who will offer to clean up and do the dishes. Fortunately, these unwritten roles have been passed down seamlessly as our older parents know to relax in their satiated happiness, and the children take over their positions. 
But a few weeks ago, my world and everything I knew was turned on its head when a friend told me about her Thanksgiving tradition. "We eat dessert at 2 PM and dinner at 6 PM." Wait a minute. I had about a zillion questions. The first is why?
I was raised on the theory that dessert can only be had once your plate is clean. Sweets were given as a reward. Even as a child, my mom would do her best to instill healthy eating habits and monitor how soon we had a snack or a treat, as she would call it, so as not to affect our hunger at dinner time. I can hear her saying, "Don't eat too many sweets. You will ruin your dinner." Now my friend not only turns up her nose at this rule but outright defies it. Her theory is that the best part of any family celebration is grandma's apple, or chocolate cream pudding, or pumpkin pie. Yum. So, if you wait to eat the best part of dinner until after the meal, you miss the chance to enjoy it because, well, you’re full! Relish in their goodness first. You can even have seconds on an emptier stomach if the mood strikes you. 

What about you? Are you ready to spit in the face of tradition and forge your own path? Maybe it's not upsetting the order of dinner and dessert for you. Perhaps you have found another way to shake things up.  Tell me hwat you are thinking?