Al Fresco

I love outdoor dining in the summertime. LOVE IT! Combining fabulous food and people with beautiful scenery - whats not to love? OK so sometimes there are bugs and sometimes it gets dark and you can't see your food, and if you live on small property downtown then maybe you eat outdoors in your driveway... um, but I still love it. We have an incredibly long driveway so we put up a screen and built a cool outdoor structure in the back so we could spend time outside sans back patio. Last year we held a number of outdoor gatherings in the space and it was just lovely. Something about adding white Christmas lights just makes things magical. See below (also my cute husband and dear friend Suzie) :

This particular dinner was a leadership appreciation dinner I held for all the women (and a guest) who serve with me to run the youth program at our church. I made homemade strawberry jam for everyone and placed them on the table as the favor. The tables and chairs we borrowed un-announced from our church :). My husband's folks come into town tonight. I'm looking forward to all the fun events we have planned while they are here - including tomorrow night when I'm cooking up some salmon on the grill and we dine al fresco. Remodelista posted a video with some outdoor dining ideas. Those women are so clever and always have such beautiful settings.

So add some twinkle lights and have a magical evening this weekend!