exactly.

This sums up my theory of the dining-room soul* nicely, actually:

I am thankful for the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.

— Nancie J. Carmody



*(if you don't know what I mean when I say dining room soul, that's OK. I'll get around to posting about it - eventually. basically, it means I strive to be the very best hostess I can be - that I try to make hospitality the gift I can always give to the people I l0ve - and that at the end of it all, my children and grandchildren and the people I knew will remember me for having that warm dining-room, dinner-party glow about me: that the one word that sums up my relationship with other people is something like welcoming, or hospitable, or inviting, or comforting, or accepting or... well, you get it.)