Thank you for a phenomenal year!

When contemplating the idea of hosting dinners for charity last year, it never occurred to us that our friends would consistently and gracefully restore our faith in humanity in the face of very disheartening world events. That has been the primary result of this experience for us. You all are amazing, generous, kind and very good sports. Thank you! 

Here is the year in summary: 

• We hosted 7 dinners total, so not quite making the one per month target (or not at all).
• As a community, you all contributed a total of over $1,850 to charity! That is about $265 per dinner, which far exceeded our expectations. 
• The largest dinner had 17 attendees and forced us to get creative with seating. 
• We had two outdoor dinners, and the heavens thankfully kept the rain to themselves on both of those days. 
• Finally, we learned to make a slew, bevy, myriad, ton, abundance (you get the idea), of new recipes. My personal favorites were palak paneer, slow cooker mac 'n cheese, baba ganoush, frittata, rugelachs, and latkes. 
• If you are curious, here are all the charities that received donations in 2015: American Cancer Society, Feeding America, Bike the US for MS, Alexandria Animal Welfare League, Books for Africa, Jayna Troxel Murray Foundation and Comfort Cases. 

So, 2016? Trying to hit one per month was a bit stressful, so we are setting a more realistic target this year of one per quarter. Now that we know we can seat 17...the maximum limit is going up. Hopefully these things balance out. 

Also, we would love to help someone else host one. If you have a charity you love, work for, endorse, adore, etc., please consider hosting a donation dinner at your place in 2016. We will make ourselves available for cooking, decorating, cleaning, and anything else you need!