We talked yesterday about making every meal a love affair. This won’t just happen. You need to take time to think about your family meal table. Think about creative things you can do to bless the children. When raising our children, I tried to do something different at the meal table at least one night a week. One of the things the children loved was COLOR NIGHTS. For example, I would choose a color and put up a notice:
“Tonight is RED Night
No admittance unless wearing something Red.
Supper at 6.00 p.m. Please knock before entering.”
While they rummaged through drawers to find red clothes (children love to dress up), I set the table with a red tablecloth, adding red candles, napkins, and centerpiece (red flowers if I could find them).
I prepared red foods. There are plenty of foods from which to choose, e.g. beets, radishes, red beans, red hot dogs with tomato sauce, tomato soup, potatoes or rice colored with red food coloring, etc. For dessert you can choose red fruits such as pomegranates (when in season), blood oranges, cherries, strawberries, watermelon, or red grapes, etc.
You can also purchase red paper plates and knives and forks, etc. I would often wrap a little gift (something inexpensive) in red paper and put it beside their plate. The children loved these nights and over the years we tried every color of the rainbow!
I’ll share with you some more ideas in the coming days.
Have fun with your family,
Nancy Campbell
P.S. I’d also love to hear from you about two things:
1) Different and creative ideas you like to do or have done at your family meal table.
2) Testimonies from mothers with older children who are now reaping the blessings of trained children who are such a help in the home.