Progressive Dinner

What night is your family night? We started our family nights before most people think they have a family. Yes, even when only two of us were the family, we had family nights. We read books together,  books we’d use years later when we did have children sitting around listening. We’d make home improvement plans. We’d play games, usually Scrabble, which my husband would invariably win, even though I would have the most unusual words. If there were a day of the week named Flexible, that’s the night we would have schedule family nights, but our most popular days were either Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Many Family Times

I’ll have to admit that my favorite family event was not really on family night. For many years we’d gather on Saturday evening and sing hymns together for a half hour or so. For some reason, this is not a favorite memory of the children. They seem to have developed a sort of ulterior motive/conspiracy theory mentality about the event that I cannot understand. Naively (apparently), I thought it was a simply delightful opportunity to hear all of us sing together to the Lord. They, of course, are all more musical than I, so perhaps I spoiled the sound of things more than I realized!

And we’ve had many family meals together, some fancier than others. And riding to church together (which for seventeen years meant an hour each way) and family concerts and lots of school work. And we can’t forget video extravaganzas (only exciting when television is not a droning constant in a home).

I guess having only a single solitary family night, even at a religiously prescribed rate of one per week would be rather piddly in the great scheme of things. We were blessed with lots of family life.

Family Progressive Dinner

One family night event was Joshua’s supper night that became an in-house progressive dinner in honor of Valentine’s Day. Though none of us can remember the main dish,  we remember we bought beautiful fancy goblets for the meal (for $1.00 each, so we’re not talking Waterford here). We had hot pretzels in our bedroom, egg drop soup in the front room, the unknown main dish in the dining room, and fruit trifle in the living room. Like most of our family fun, probably no one else would be impressed, but I think we all enjoyed ourselves! Maybe if you’re looking for a family fun event, you could give it a try!

Who knows maybe sitting in the different rooms of your house eating dinner, will give you more cleaning ideas! Forget that. Just enjoy the great company and the good food. I do hope you have apprentices with whom you can have so much fun.