The end of a difficult season can deserve dinner together even without an official occasion.

Hard stretches usually end without ceremony. The treatment finishes, the last box is unpacked, and everyone simply carries on as though nothing had been survived, because there is no card for it and no date in the calendar. Something that took a great deal out of you is worth marking even if nobody else would call it an event.

When you notice a difficult period has ended, name it and make a small occasion of it. Book the table, cook the good meal, say out loud what the months were like. Marking the end helps the people who went through it with you know that it is over.