Dinner's Ready! How Family Dinner Can Change Your Life
As long as I can remember, eating dinner together has been a top priority for my family. Our heavy oak dining room table sits right outside of the kitchen and bears fifteen years’ worth of marks, knicks, dings, and scratches from daily use. We each have an assigned seat, although no one actually assigned anything. It’s just where we choose to sit night after night. Dad’s at the head of the table, with Mom to his left and one son on his right. The other son sits next to Mom and across from him is the daughter. These seats have been rearranged throughout the years as high chairs came and went, but we’re pretty settled on these seats for the foreseeable future.
Mom starts supper around the same time every night. The meals she creates for our family are delicious and full of nutrients. It’s not uncommon for her to send someone out to the freezers to find the right meat for dinner. “Bring me two packs of chicken thighs!” or “Try to find the biggest pack of short ribs you can!” Seasonal produce filters through our kitchen, changing every few weeks. Summertime brings boxes of berries, thick asparagus, shiny eggplant, and big heads of broccoli, while the autumn months see a variety of squashes like spaghetti, delicata, and acorn. Mid-winter has us eating sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, purple potatoes, and more. As spring creeps around the corner, so do the fresh leafy greens! Mom turns this colorful array of produce into delicious side dishes, both known and new. What a delight to find so many of the necessary ingredients from our own farm and our farmer friends, including chicken stock, fruit and vegetables, raw honey, milk, and cream.
“Can you set the table?” Mom turns from the stove as she requests some help, wiping a hand on her trusty denim apron. Around this time Dad walks through the door, a big anticipatory smile on his face.
“Something smells good!” he unfailingly exclaims. He washes his hands, then walks through the kitchen, lifting pot lids and peeking in the oven until he gets shooed out or roped into grating cheese, dicing onions, or another task.
Slowly each member of our family congregates around the dining room table, dishes placed and glasses filled with milk more often than water. Mom is the last one to join us, tossing hot pads to the table before carrying over a steaming soup, casserole, or hot cast iron skillet with enticing smells radiating upwards.
We join hands. Dad smiles joyfully. He doesn’t need to express the depth of his thankfulness out loud; we can feel it emanating from within. Connected and secure, we bow our heads and someone offers a blessing over our meal. This sacred time is more than just eating together. It is a ritual symbolizing our togetherness, our strength as a family unit. It confirms and encourages our bond. When we all show up for each other, we’re saying, “I will be here for you,” “You are worth my time,” and “You are important to me.” We talk, we laugh, we eat, and we feel good about what we are eating. We are energized, encouraged, and rejuvenated.
Over the years, I’ve realized more and more how special family dinner is, and I’ve seen how intentional time together improves all of our lives. I remember as a 14-year-old when Dad took Vintage Meadows full-time. His schedule changed to where he was able to eat breakfast with my brothers and I every day before school, and I’ve only recently realized how impactful that was and what positive subconscious messages he was sending that I carry with me today. Relationships compose who we are as individuals, and that’s why we have to prioritize them! What relationship-building rituals do you have with your loved ones? What daily practices do you have that encourage and confirm those most important relationships? The people closest to you might be your children, your spouse, your parents, your college friends, or your mom group. Watch how your life changes as you add this intentional time with the people you love most to your routine; we’d love to hear your stories!