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Kin by Lesley Crewe

October 8, 2015/in Books /by ValleyFamilyFun

Kin – A Novel by Lesley Crewe: Worth Checking Out! * I received a bundle of books from Nimbus Publishing for review. This book was reviewed by Linda Shaffelburg. Thanks Linda!* When you read the book jacket, this is what you find: Traditions, created and subverted. Love, nurtured and destroyed. Friendships, marriages, and the wild […]

Progressive Dinner Parties

October 8, 2015/in Activities, Family Life /by ValleyFamilyFun

Hosting a Progressive Dinner Having progressive dinners have become a tradition in our neighbourhood. The basic idea is that you move from house to house for various parts of the meal. This is how we do it. Find a night that works for everyone’s schedule – this is by far the hardest part! Once the […]

Kin by Lesley Crewe

October 8, 2015/in Books /by ValleyFamilyFun

Progressive Dinner Parties

October 8, 2015/in Activities, Family Life /by ValleyFamilyFun

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Kin by Lesley Crewe

October 8, 2015/in Books /by ValleyFamilyFun

Kin – A Novel by Lesley Crewe:

Worth Checking Out!

* I received a bundle of books from Nimbus Publishing for review. This book was reviewed by Linda Shaffelburg. Thanks Linda!*

When you read the book jacket, this is what you find:

Traditions, created and subverted. Love, nurtured and destroyed. Friendships, marriages, and the wild beauty of Cape Breton Island. And above all, kin, in all it’s convoluted forms.

In KIN, bestselling author Lesley Crewe traces the tangled lines of loyalty, tragedy, joy, and love through three generations of families. Beginning with Annie Macdonald, an effervescent seven-year-old living in Glace Bay in the 1930s, and ending with Annie’s great-niece Hilary, an idealistic twenty-year-old in Round Island in 2000, the story is complex and riveting. The cast of characters is vast and varied – some with the island’s deliciously cutting wit, some dour and uptight, some frail, some resilient, and all inextricably bound by their shared histories.

Brimming with humour and poignancy, Kin is a celebration of the heartbreaking, maddening joy that is family.

Here is what Linda had to say about the book:

Kin, by Lesley Crewe is a novel that will pull you in and before you know it you’re invested in the characters, hours have gone by, you’re still in you pjs, the dog hasn’t been walked and your family has not been fed.

Kin is a story of a true friendship, not a perfect friendship, not a story book friendship but a realistic friendship.

Kin is about family and the triumphs and tribulations that are life.

Kin is a story based in Cape Breton in a time when life, although plagued with hardships, seems so much simpler than the fast, crazy lives we lead now.

Kin is comfort food in the form of a book.
If you love Maeve Binchy you will love this book!

Two of the highest praises one can give a book are
1. You can’t put the book
2. You want to read more by the same author.
Both were true for me after I read Lesley Crewe’s Kin.

So, grab a cuppa tea, sit back and enjoy!

Kin is available in local bookstores, or online through Nimbus or Amazon.

Find out more about Lesley Crewe on her website.

Progressive Dinner Parties

October 8, 2015/in Activities, Family Life /by ValleyFamilyFun

Hosting a Progressive Dinner

Having progressive dinners have become a tradition in our neighbourhood. The basic idea is that you move from house to house for various parts of the meal.

This is how we do it.

Find a night that works for everyone’s schedule – this is by far the hardest part!

Once the date is set, we divide up the meal, and assign a different household to each part. Depending on how many houses you have is how many parts of the meal you should assign.

For example, in our neighbourhood, there are three houses that participate; therefore, we have appetizers, main course and dessert. You could always add soup, salad, before or after-dinner drinks, etc.

This time we started at our house for appetizers, and then all walked to the next house for main course and then walked/ran to the final destination for dessert.

The kids love it! They say it’s like having three different play dates! It’s an easy way to enjoy a meal together!

There are other ways to have a progressive dinner, too. If you are not close by, you can drive from location to location, or as we did when I was living in Japan – we all biked! I have also had progressive restaurant nights (a different restaurant for each part of the meal). The possibilities are endless!

Tips:

1. Keep it simple. The kids really just want to play. We vowed next time to just feed them Kraft dinner and hotdogs and have a nice meal for the adults!

2. Keep it moving. Don’t stay long at any one place (especially if kids are involved). The maximum we stayed was 30 – 45 minutes.

3. Mix it around. If you do this more than once, make sure the same family is not always assigned to main course.

4. Invite other families. Besides the families that are hosting, invite other families to participate. Have them contribute to the food at one of the stations.

Next is main course!

They devoured the brownie ice cream sundaes in seconds!

As the kids asked, “Can we make this a yearly tradition?” Yes! We will do this in the spring and fall! Can’t wait for the next!

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Kin – A Novel by Lesley Crewe:

Hosting a Progressive Dinner

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