Do you have any mealtime traditions? I like the one I read about here, regarding the rose & the thistle. So COOL! How often do you eat together as a family? Do you have any special meal traditions for birthdays? {I am asking lots of questions as of late so that I can just collect other people’s opinions instead of sharing my own occasionally controversial opinion~LOL!} Our mealtimes look something like this:
We eat together almost every night of the week, unless one of us has to be out for a meeting or whatnot. We almost always eat at the kitchen table with the TV OFF. We do enjoy music with our meals. Every now & then we all eat in the living room, with the kids at a little picnic table. We don’t have any special mealtime traditions, which I’d like to start. I’ve heard of having a “Special” plate that a family member gets to use if they are having some sort of special day. Maybe when the kids get older I will make their favorite meal w/dessert for their birthdays. In the summer, things are a little more difficult as hubby doesn’t get home sometimes until after 6:30 pm. Sometimes we wait for him, sometimes we don’t. We are just accustomed to eating around 5:30-6:00 pm. The kids do miss him if we don’t end up eating together. I think the concept of eating at the dinner table together is extremely important. I heard some statistic on the radio recently {can’t remember the specifics} that showed a positive benefit for children whose families frequently eat together. I kind of look at it as a chance to reconnect after a long day. Even Tatiana is in the habit of daily asking hubby, “How was your day at work today, Dad?”
So, what does your family do that works or doesn’t or what do you want to change about your mealtime habits?
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Well, We eat together every 5 days a week with the TV off (which is I think is the best) and with music on -- we even light the candles on the dinner table.
The other two night Jacob and I have dinner while Daddy works late. We do the same thing...TV off, music and candles on.
Every Sunday, I make a BIG meal! Turkey Beast or steaks or stuffed shells... Something big that I don't have time for during the week. We love Sunday Dinners.
Now for Birthdays, I make what their favorite meal is. Matt of course orders in Plum Garden... my favorite place to eat!! So Good! :)
Oh, and the best thing about dinner time, everyone helps clean up... even Jacob (he's 2) he cleans the table off and helps me put the dishes in the dishwasher. It's so cute. Wednesday, he decided to just dump the whole plate in the garbage. It was so cute and funny -- I had to take a picture of it.
Ok so I totally had to get in on this one, (and by the way I just loved hearing the wonderful things about everyones husbands on the last blog! My husband is wonderful too, and really is a tremendous help with lots of things!!!)
I know what you mean about eating around the table. Having our family grown way to big for our little table has caused some real chaoz in our home lately. We have decided that it will be a top priority to get a bigger table first before anything else as soon as we can!!
As far as birthdays we have family parties and every other year a bigger friend party for each of the kids. Josh usually takes me out for my birthday (becuase I love to go out), and I usually make him a salmon dinner for his(because he loves to stay home!)!! Birthdays are so special and fun!!! We just love them!
oh yes and I'm once again writing as you can tell, I think a month off was enough!! ;0)
Once again because of our schedule doing dinner as a family is hard, but when Jeremy isn't working we all have dinner at the table with no TV. I like to make big dinners those nights! On the nights when he is working I will sit with the kids at the table and catch up on their day. For birthdays I like to make their favorite meals (Kylee always picks pork chops!) Other then that we don't really have any special things that we do, but I like the idea of having a special plate for speical days! I think I'll have to try that!
For dinner time, our family all sits down around the table and eats together. I was worried when Dan started working far from home last week but he still gets home around 5:15-5:30 so we wait for him...I just give the kids a snack when we usually would be eating dinner (4:30). I love eating together as a family and we always have to TV off so we can concentrate on talking and sharing what happened in our day, which Kaitlyn loves.
For birthday meals, I fix Dan or Kaitlyn (maybe Landon will be able to tell me this year) the meal of their choice no matter what it is. But the night before the kids birthdays we always eat what we had before I took the castor oil to get them out...so May 24th, we always have pigs in a blanket with fried potatoes and Aug 9th we do Burger King. I love making a big deal about birthdays because that's what my parents, siblings, and I always did for eachother.
Before Scott got this new job we would eat at the table every night unless there were meetings or what not. TV off. Now with Scott working 7-4 and than going to his 2nd job most nights we don't eat as a family anymore but I like Holl still sit with the kids. I have a special plate for the kiddos that I occasionally use but haven't in a while. For thier birthdays, they get whatever they want and I will cook it. For abbey it is mostly lasagna which coincidentally is what I chose EVERY year until i got married huh like mother like daughter and for Scott, his differs. Andrew anything pasta.
Skyra: I hope you plan on making a scrapbook page out of Jacob throwing his plate away! Sienna likes to throw things away too, but not because she's helping clean up, just because she is mischievous.
Alicia: {{{{hugs}}}} Welcome back! We missed you. I was just telling Rick the other night that sometimes this blog feels like an online mom's group, "except without Alicia now". Funny how the dinner table is so symbolic of coming together as a family. I think it's funny too how you like to go out, but Josh likes to stay in!
Hollie: Even if you can't eat together every night, I think it's so cool that you make a BIG meal on the nights that you are together. I think that makes it all the more special. There is actually a plate out there that is bright red and has white writing around the edge that says something like "You are special today!" or something like that to use for special days. I've heard of moms that do it when their child wins a soccer game or gets an "A" on a test or does something to be really proud of, notjust on birthdays. Always thought that was neat!
Beth: I knew God would work out Dan's schedule for the best. I'm glad you guys can still eat together. I was sooooo cracking up about eating your "last meal before the castor oil" comment. TOO funny!
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