Candle Pass & Little Easter

 

In my last post, I talked about the meal matrix our family uses. Along a similar line of thought is our weekly “fancy feast.”

Growing up, Sunday dinners were always a special occasion. Usually, my grandparents would join us for a delicious home-cooked meal followed by some sort of dessert. 

We’ve continued the tradition of Sunday being a day for a good home-cooked meal, and we’ve added setting the table to make it a “fancy” feast. Most days, this simply means we throw down a tablecloth before setting down our normal dishes. We always light candles to set the mood (but you could use plastic light-up candles!), and we use the meal as a chance to practice etiquette rules and table setting!

I learned recently that every Sunday is a chance to celebrate a "Little Easter," which made me love our "fancy feast" even more. There have been weeks where our fancy feast is our brunch instead of dinner. This works just as well! 

(You can download this free table setting activity here. If you laminate it and use Velcro dots, your child can match the table setting over and over again. Or simply cut out the pieces and ask the child to practice placing the items in the correct places!)

At the end of our meal, before dessert (which is usually either a fruit crisp or a bowl of ice cream), we say our nighttime prayer, which includes prayer intentions. My children love using a candle snuffer to put out the flames with each intention they share (I put out five or six votives on a small tray). The kids like to watch their intentions rise to Heaven! 

When the kids are older, I hope to start "candle pass" prayer, just as I experienced with the group I traveled with to Africa. Each person takes turns sharing words of gratitude and prayer intentions before passing the candle to the next person. Super simple, but something about passing a candle is so powerful!

We’ve really enjoyed making Sunday family dinners so special. It is one of our favorite parts of the week!