breakfast nook - a place for light meals (usually near a kitchen)
A breakfast nook is a small area in the home that is dedicated to informal dining. It is usually located within or adjacent to the kitchen. As the word “nook” implies, this area is generally small and compact. In older homes, the breakfast nook often has a secluded and private quality and can be the perfect place for a child to do homework or for mom to grab a quiet cup of coffee. In newer homes, a contemporary breakfast nook could involve a space that is a little more open and connected to the kitchen than the traditional carved-out corner or separate, if small, dining space.
Okay, now that we’ve got that settled, Gramma has herself a breakfast nook. It is the space just outside the kitchen and her bedroom – and a bathroom for that matter. It’s a short walk to the nook for her breakfast of Bran, toast and coffee.
Now, although, the nook itself is the space involved, however, the table within the nook is very important. The table that previously occupied this space, as far as I am concerned, would not and could not have qualified as breakfast nook material. In fact, it hindered Gramma’s movement (and everyone else’s) to and from the important places in the house. That table not only took the “nook” right out of the space, it actually was more of an obstable. And, in my humble opinion, obstacles are not allowed to be furniture in breakfast nooks. So, when that table was given away, I took the opportunity to find Gramma a table that would be more compact and more to her size – a table that would give the nook in which she had her breakfast a proper nook look.
Okay, now that we’ve settled that. Let’s talk about the table I got. Small. I mean Alice in Wonderland small. The first few days Gramma sat down to eat her breakfast there, she laughed out loud.
Mom told me the first morning, before I rounded the corner to actually see Gramma sitting at the table, “She can’t stop laughing over that table.”
And then I saw her sitting there sipping her coffee, and enjoying her breakfast, and laughed myself. “It looks like she’s having a tea party.”
Indeed, it did. I even mentioned that it looked as if she was waiting on the Mad Hatter. The first time I looked at it I thought it might be a little small, and laughed at the idea of it being an Alice in Wonderland or a dollhouse sized table. But, then I couldn’t help but go back to my friend’s store to get it. When I told him for what I wanted it, he laughed out loud. And then he gave it to me free of charge. (Maybe he thought I’d be right back to return it had I paid for it.)
But, as the days with our dollhouse table passed, the laughter faded. Not because the table got bigger, or the rest of us got smaller (although we will all shrink as my grandmother has if we are lucky to live that long). No, it was none of that. No, it is simply because the table I just had to go back to get for Gramma really does render that space a breakfast nook.
She enjoys her breakfast unimpeded by the obstacles that might impede her, or obstacle she might become, with a larger table.
And I can say that I too have enjoyed sitting across from Gramma at her table, as we have done many times before at coffee shops in the past, sipping a cup of coffee together chatting and laughing, oblivious of the activity around us – content in our nook.
