Anchors

We recently had a birthday party for my oldest and youngest daughter.  As we planned the party we started to think about what we could serve.  We wanted to have things that fit into the different dietary needs of the whole family.  Considering that and the fact that I am a bit adventurous when it comes to food, we decided to cook a whole hog.

So I started doing all sorts of research on how to cook a whole hog.  It turns out for every person that writes about it there is a different way of doing it.  I picked out all parts of the different methods that made the most sense and honestly seemed the simplest.  The point of this post isn’t to talk about the process. (I may do a post in the future about that.) It is to write about the results.

Once the pig was done, my plan was to pick the meat off the pig and bring the meat in on a platter.  My brother Jon set me straight on that plan. He said we should bring it in whole.  I was glad he felt so strong on that.  It was 100% the right call.

You might expect that there would be people that would be uncomfortable with seeing a whole pig, snout to tail.  I sure was thinking that, but everyone seemed to really get into the experience of it.  It was fun to watch everyone’s reaction and to watch the kids be completely fascinated by the different parts of the pig. It probably didn’t hurt that it tasted so good either.  I, as the good host, lead the way by trying one of the eyeballs.

My hope is that it gave people an experience and a memory that we can recall as a family for years to come.  It will sure stick in my mind.  It will be an anchor used for me recall that party and that time.  These get-togethers can take big commitments for the people putting them on as well as the people attending.  After this party, I better understand that it is important to have anchors for these parties.  We might as well put in a little more effort and have some strong memories of them.

I would like to hear from you about things you do to provide these anchors.  Please leave them in the comments below.