This pretty set of dishes belonged to my great grandmother.  It’s not fancy or expensive, but I think it’s beautiful.  The pieces are worn, from many years of use.  I have about a dozen dinner plates, almost as many salad plates, and a few special pieces like the vegetable server below. 

The really great thing about this set is that there is an identical set of these dishes.  You see, my great grandmother and her sister had identical sets of dishes.  That way, when they had large dinner parties they could share the dishes they needed.  Isn’t that brilliant?

Well, my sister and I thought it was a fabulous idea.  If our great grandmother made it work, then we certainly could too!  My sister and I lives just minutes from each other and we take turns entertaining when we have family parties.  Our family has traditionally enjoyed sit-down-dinners when we get together.  There are 20 of us.  Twenty. Twenty dinner plates.  Twenty salad plates.  Twenty dessert plates.  You get the idea.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t have room to store all that, plus serving pieces! Our arrangement for sharing works out perfectly.

We both have a full set of Friendly Village and we each have a few serving pieces.  At Thanksgiving, I pack up my dishes and drop them at her house.  At Christmas, she packs up her dishes and brings them to my house.  We live close, so we don’t even wrap the dishes.  We just put them in a box and take them for a little drive.

I absolutely LOVE these dishes.  They are perfect for winter holidays.  You’re probably wondering what we do for the other holidays and family parties.  Don’t worry, we have the same everyday dishes and serving pieces too. 

Our great grandmother and her sister had a pretty smart idea.  Sharing is such a good thing.

Happy entertaining!