My good dishes...

Do you have "good" dishes?  Do you use them?  Do you worry about them, wince when someone cuts their meat too vigorously on them?  Do you allow anyone else to wash them?  Do you only use them for special occasions?

I have so many questions.  I have good dishes.  They are about the only "good" thing I do have.  They are Royal Albert in the Old Country Roses pattern.  I love, love, love them.  A lot.  So much so that I have had them for about eleven years and yesterday...was the first time they have ever had food on them.  I had to soak the bar code stickers off of them.  I was saving them for when my formal dining room was finished and the house was perfect.  But you know what?  I don't want to die having never used my "good" dishes even if that means letting the cave people who live with me use them too.  After asking them to be careful because they were real china, it was asked how you could tell real china from other stuff.  So then everyone had to hold up the bread plate and look through it, which caused my heart to stop beating until the little plates were once again on the table. 

Needless to say, my Easter dinner was a little tense and it was asked kindly by the cave persons that unless we were eating oatmeal with plastic spoons for our next special occasion, could I please leave the "good" dishes in the cupboard.  Absolutely.  Then we ate cake....on paper plates.

Smiles from the farm,
Lisa