The year before we left for New York, I was so overbooked that we almost never had long, quiet nights at home. I dreamed of family game nights, family movie nights, but they rarely happened. We always had people over, or somewhere to go, or I'd be tossing dinner at my kids while standing as I skipped eating because I was trying to lose weight. Often we’d meet for dinner out, usually at the local restaurant/bar that everybody goes to, sort of like a Cheers except with chardonnay and kid's meals.
I want to replicate the family time we had in Ithaca. We had a lot of it there and I discovered the more time we spent together, the easier it was to get along. It’s just that I need a little help prioritizing. I decided to try having a regular Shabbat dinner, which means gathering your family for a special dinner every Friday night, to mark the beginning of the Sabbath, or Jewish day of rest. You don’t have to produce an elaborate meal, it can be any little gesture—a table cloth, flowers, something that makes the dinner different than all the other nights of the week, a simple way of showing your family you are honoring what’s important. Plus, the Challah lady delivers the traditional bread to Hebrew school students in class on Thursdays, so we were halfway there.
We had to decline two dinner invitations and squeeze in a run to the market, but I pulled it off and we had all the ingredients for our first look-at-how-nice-and-sane-we-are Shabbat dinner. We sang blessings as we lit candles, poured the wine and tore pieces from the ceremonial Challah. I noticed we all lingered around the table talking for over an hour, much longer than our normal eating time.
Charming Baby was practically chirping and came over to me and curled up in my lap after dinner, petting my hair, feeling affectionate. First Born Prince thanked me profusely for the cooking and I couldn’t believe it when they all cleared their plates and helped clean up without me even asking.
I feel like we are setting a family tone and as the mom, I'm the DJ.
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