Just divide it in four...

Back before we had four kids between us, Hubby and I, and my BFF and her hubby, got together two or three times a week for dinner... often with little more notice than either BFF or I walking into the other's office at the end of the day and saying, "wanna do dinner tonight?" Neither of us had baseball/hockey/soccer/fencing/gymnastics practice to shuttle kids to, so most often the response to that question was, "sure"... especially if the Caps were on TV that night. Whichever couple was the "guest" brought dessert. That was the standing arrangement. It didn't need to be discussed. It was just the way it was. Whatever said dessert was, we almost always just divided it into four. We were younger and had better metabolisms (or so we told ourselves) and splitting it up that way meant no leftovers. :-)

Over the past 12 years, the dinners have become less frequent and definitely less spontaneous. Coordinating our schedules now sometimes seems like it requires a master planner. But we make the time and we do pretty well considering how busy we all are. The dessert arrangement is still loosely in place, though we no longer just split it four ways. Sometimes the kids eat some, too. Sometimes there are just leftovers. But tonight we sent cookies downstairs for the kids, who were watching a movie after dinner. Hubby was cutting the chocolate pie for the adults and looked up with the question written on his face. I don't even remember who said it, but it was like going back 12 or so years in time... "what the heck, just divide it in four."