Since moving to a different city, we now attend a "Sunday church" but have continued our family Shabbat meals because, well, we love them! Nothing legalistic or too formal, just a nicer-than-normal meal by candlelight to highlight entering into a day of rest from our work week. This is, of course, a shadow and picture of the true Sabbath rest--Jesus (Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28, Luke 6:1-5).
To make it special we often use our "fancy" dishes (though at times we've used paper plates!), a Shabbat candle holder, and sometimes Sissy Mom will make her famous challah bread. If possible, I like to have a special dessert on hand. After dinner, Tom gives the children blessings, we sing, and then Tom reads to us from our small Hebrew Torah scroll (the first five books of the Bible). Tom is a lover of languages and would love for all of us to be able to read and study the scriptures in the original languages. I think my brain is just too old to learn any new language very well but there's still hope for the children!
In any event, this is a nice way to hear at least Hebrew on a regular basis. Since there are no books, chapters, or verses marked in the scroll, it's fun for me and the children to guess which passage of scripture Tom is reading by the Hebrew words we can catch. Since Sissy Mom has been studying Rosetta Stone Hebrew this past year she's usually the one to catch the most words.
Sometimes we have the children recite passages of scripture they've been memorizing or answer Bible trivia questions at the Shabbat table. It's especially relaxing when Tom plays a few hymns for us at the end of the evening. Somehow, anything done by candlelight is so much more exciting for everyone!
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