It's time for Shabbat

Usually by the time Friday evening comes, I am spent.  It's undoubtedly been a long week and I am ready for the swing shift (Jeff) to come in and help out during Saturday and Sunday.  Now that Sam is no longer napping in the afternoons, Friday evenings find me even more exhausted than usual.

Once a month, my Friday evenings have become fun again!  Amy, a fabulous mommy friend came up with a great idea.  She sent an email asking 4 other families if we would like to rotate to each of our houses and host a Shabbat dinner.  What an awesome idea!  I replied my Toppall team is in and I'll volunteer for us to go first.  I wanted to get it over with and not have anxiety waiting months and months for our turn.  However, any anxiety I was forgoing, became fraught with other worries --

1. How in the world would I fit 10 adults and 12 kids in my house for dinner?

2. What in the world could I make us all to eat?

3. Where is everyone going to sit?

4. Was I overscheduling myself because I also volunteered to bring dinner to a friend & her family for that same evening?

One by one, I tackled all the challenges and everything turned out great.  Fantastic, if I do say so myself.  It helped that I literally wrote out my Thursday and Friday schedule in one hour increments, starting at 6:00am and ending at 7:45pm.  I needed to make sure I could fit everything in and make the most of the time I had.   Many thanks are given to Kelly (does she come to my rescue weekly or what!?!?) for letting me borrow not one, but two kids-sized tables with chairs.  This gave all the kids a place to sit.  And, because one family ended up cancelling, I had enough spots for all 8 adults to sit at my dining room table. In the end we had a total of 8 adults and 9 kids.  I was very nervous when I got a text from one of the moms asking if they could bring anything.  And when the phone rang at 5:00pm with a similar question from another family, I thought both times that someone else was cancelling.  Fortunately this was not the case.

More thanks can also be given to Let's Dish.  It was this brilliant idea to get the Lemon Chicken with Asparagus and Rice and not need to order the pizzas I originally thought might be a good idea. (hahaha, just kidding).  The dish took 35 minutes to make and I think was a crowd pleaser.  I put a salad and of course, challah with the dinner and I felt pretty good about it all coming together.  I made the kids steamed broccoli, chicken nuggets and noodles with parmesan and butter.  Ding, ding, ding we had a winner.

I am in love with this tradition we've started.  Jeff and I aren't overly religious, but we want the kids to know they are Jewish and to celebrate the various holidays.  We did the prayer over the bread and candles.  All the kids chanted along.  It was a great way to end the crazy, busy week I call my life.  Be among good friends and have the kids learn a little more about what it is to be Jewish.  Every tradition has to start somewhere.  And I am glad we got this one going.

Jeff and I earlier in the day were trying to guess what time we thought everyone would leave.  He said 7:30pm and I said, "No way, 7:00pm.  All the kids go to bed in the 7:00pm hour and everyone still has to drive home."  To our delight, no one left before 8:30pm.  Wowee!  I'd say that alone showed the evening was a success.

So now I can breathe easy for the next 4 months until it is our turn again.  I feel like a full-fledged grown-up. I even had a tablecloth on the table!