Celebrating a day of rest!

What a special day we planned for last weekend.  Though we didn't do it on Friday, leading into Saturday, as it would have been done traditionally; we really enjoyed our day of rest very much.  We celebrated on Saturday evening and throughout Sunday.  However - it did not come without much preparation!!  We spent time in the week prior preparing by making a centerpiece out of pie tins, cork, and wick to float in a beautiful bowl passed on to me from my aunt.  The kids also really enjoyed painting a challah bread cover for the ceremonial loaves.  We carefully made our shopping list and headed to the store to buy what we needed as well.  The preparation was well worth it - we were ready to prepare the feast when we woke on Saturday morning!

We spent the day preparing golden yoiche soup, challah bread, carrots, brown rice, streusel, candlestick salad, and cholent.  We also prepared tea, kept all the dishes washed and spent time cleaning the house.  By sunset on Saturday evening, the table was set and 4 of our 6 children were there to enjoy this time as a family!  That in itself made our feast that much more special!

We spent time in traditional prayers as well as the lighting of the candles to represent creation and redemption. Our little historian passed the bowl to wash our hands to show gratidude to God for his sanctification.

Sunday was wonderful too; everything was prepared and clean.  We went to church and then came home to the cholent (roast beef, potatoes, and carrots) in the crock pot.  We enjoyed the closing ceremony with the Havdalah candles, closing prayer, and extinguishing the Havdalah candles in the over-flowing cup of wine.
The kids really enjoyed the feast and one of our sons, in on weekend leave from the Marines, took many pictures while we feasted.  He even captured a memorable shot of himself as he feasted on homemade challah bread (ok - so we aimed for reverence, but lets face it - being silly is just part of our family tradition)!!

This was a wonderful way to kick off our year and to wrap up our week of learning about creation and celebrating the day of rest that God preserved as a gift to us!

Father's prayer

Handwashing

Mother's prayer

The Sabbath table before the feast (with our candlestick salads at each place)

Here is a picture of the blueberry streusel we made for dessert!

This is our challah bread! Yum...my little artist and I kneaded it together and prayed as we kneaded our love into the dough!

This is our centerpiece and candles we left burning late into the night.

This was a very nice celebration that we would have never thought to have done without My Father's World homeschool curriculum.
Blessings, Ashley