The happiness of a new family tradition: Restaurant Night.

One of my resolutions is “Cultivate rituals and traditions.” We recently started a delightful new one (I’ve decided that “new tradition” is no oxymoron in our house.)

It’s called “Restaurant Night.” The Big Girl suggested it a few weeks ago, and we’ve done it twice, and it was a huge hit.

Our Restaurant Night in Saturday; in New York City, at least among the people I know, adults make nighttime plans during the week, and spend the weekend evenings with their family. This seemed odd to me at first; in Kansas City, adults mostly go out on Fridays and Saturdays.

So from now on, every Saturday night, we figure out what kind of “restaurant” we will be. For our first restaurant – Italian – the Big Man and the girls made pizza. We set the table properly (somewhat unusual for us). I got out a few votive candles -- candles go a long way to establishing a “restaurant” atmosphere -- and some red and white checked tin trays that have an Italian feel. The Big Girl made a menu and decorated a blackboard sign with the restaurant name, “La Nina.” The Little Girl and I stayed in character as customers for the whole evening, while the Big Man acted as customer/chef and the Big Girl was waitress/customer. We even changed our clothes to dress up (the Little Girl chose to wear a princess costume).

The second Restaurant Night had a Mexican theme: the restaurant was “Hola,” serving salmon tacos.

There were several aspects of Restaurant Night that make it a success.

First, it’s a fun and easy tradition, and traditions enrich family life tremendously.

Second, the game makes it easier to enforce good manners and helpful table courtesy. The Big Girl as Waitress was happy to jump up and fill people’s water glasses.

Third, it gives shape to the day. We pick a theme, we pick a specialty food to cook, we pick a few appropriate decorations. That was all it took to make dinner into a MAJOR source of fun for everyone.

Have you found any easy ways to make ordinary activities more fun for your family?

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I always enjoy stopping by Ben Casnocha's blog. He has an interesting point of view and links to lots of thought-provoking material.

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Comments

[Kelsey]

I love it!

What a great way to boost the fun in a typical family routine. I'll have to remember the idea when my little ones are old enough to participate.

Oh, Gretchen, I wanted to tell you I just read "Forty Ways to Look at JFK" and really, really enjoyed it. What a fun, interesting read. I breezed through it and learned a lot. You'd think since I have my MA in history I'd know a lot of the details of JFK's life, but I know so much more now!

[Shanel Yang]

What a terrific idea! That reminds me of when I was a kid and wanted my three younger sisters to help me clean the house. I invented a game called "Cleaning Company." (I had no idea there actually were such companies.)

I'd pretend the phone was ringing ("Prrring! Prrring!") with hand to ear holding an invisible receiver. ("Hello, Cleaning Company. What's that you say? You need us to come over right now and clean your house for a party? We'll be right over, Ma'am.") Then, I'd clap my hands together excitedly and announce to my sisters, "Sounds like another job for Cleaning Company!"

We'd pretend to pile into an imaginary car and drive over to our living room ("vroom-vrooming" all around the house first -- we were all still in elementary school so this was pretty fun for us). Then, we'd start cleaning whichever room we'd been assigned to briskly while repeatedly singing, "Cleaning Company! Cleaning Company! Woo woo!" with a raise of our hands (or feet if our hands were full) with every "Woo woo!" Pretty crazy, huh?

[Outdoorgrrl]

Your restaurant night sounds similar to our tradition of Mexican Monday. For us it's just a night where we try a new Mexican recipe. My dad (the only other member of the family who likes spicy food) brings a six pack of beer and joins us for dinner. It's a nice way to spice up what could be the worst day of the week. "Uh...it's Monday...Oh, wait! It's Mexican Monday - woohoo!"

[Elaine]

As a micro family - single mom of one kid - the little traditions are extra important to us because a lot of 'normal' falls between the cracks.

We have 'adventures' regularly - it started off when my daughter was very small and it was to glamourize our errands. Now, we plan it out a bit - a map or agenda to pick the route, bring along the camera, 'adventure' clothes (my daughter loves hats) and a snack or dish we haven't had before.

[Stacy]

My son's daycare is doing "camp" for the summer and each week has a theme. As I've been thinking about ways to contribute something to each week, I realized that this would be a pretty fun and easy way to spice up summer if you were at home, too. This week the theme is "Garden." They are planting flowers and vegetables, weeding, learning about plants, watering them, reading books about plants and gardens and goodness knows what else. Next week is "Insects!"

[ann]

I'm totally going to do this with my boys. They LOVE eating at restaurants, but it's a bit out of the budget to go out to eat frequently. A new tradition with a restaurant theme. Two good things in one!

[gorgeousophie]

Where have you been lady?! For a while, I have been meaning to thank you for blogging with such great regularity - and talent of course ;o) - and lo and behold, you vanished for days on end! Anyway, welcome back (I nearly got worried something had happened!)and just desired to say that I thought about you on Saturday as I looked 'across the continent by means of the magnificent and unusually attractive teletroscope' by Tower Bridge - yes it is a very small world!

[Charlotte]

This sounds like so much fun. It reminds me of Sunday nights growing up when after a big Sunday lunch instead of a regular dinner my parents would cook together (usually one or the other did the cooking). They'd make something that was not our usual meat-and-three-veg. The best thing in winter was Welsh Rarebit, and in summer they would make cornmeal pancakes for homemade enchiladas. I loved watching them cook together and bring these "exotic" dishes into our "white bread world." They are both gone now for many years but I have these wonderful memories and so will your family.

[Karen]

We started this same tradition with our only child, a daughter. She created the menus and we prepared them together. She was the menu planner, chef and hostess, and our "restaurant" was named "Chez Nous" -- as she grew up in Paris and Berne speaking French this made perfect sense. She's 15 now, but we still have a chalkboard in our apartment in Paris with "Chez Nous" on it. And now she can really cook!

[ClickALifeCoach]

Love it, love it, love it. I'll keep this in mind once our little one is old enough.

We had a nice tradition when I grew up, every summer me and my brothers put up a tent in our garden. We pretended we were going away for the weekend and stayed the night in the tent, playing games. A mini break in our own backyard.

[Lori]

One of my friends has a tradition with his family. Every once in awhile, they have "Pirate Night." They cover the table entirely in newspaper and eat with no plates, napkins or utensils - just hands! He says that his kids have to follow rules and proper table etiquette all the time, so why not give them a break every now and then?

[Tammy]

Gretchen, I love your Happiness Project and appreciate all of your work. My daughters and I organize the gameroom under the guise of turning it into something else. In order to become a veterinarian's office or campground, for example, it just makes sense to organize the toys first! Then we bring out things we need for the new environment and have space to play.

[Frode H]

Thank you. Great idea!
I now have to find my Chef costume and make pizza tonight. My oldest son, can make the sign today (It is raining now, so great indoor activity). Hope it goes well :)