Jewish Family Event On Easter: Cook Dinner For The Homeless

Managing the challenges of being a family in Silicon Valley where kids have their own batting cages in their back yards and go to Aspen for "ski week" is not easy. We work hard to instill values in our boys.

Just to be clear, we don't have a batting cage or even the room for one in our back yard and I had to work over "ski week".

Now that our youngest are 5 (twins) we have started a regular holiday routine: cooking dinner for the homeless. Being Jewish means that we are free on many of the mainstream holidays. Better yet, our Temple always organizes cooking dinners for the homeless so we get to share the experience with other Temple members. We did that for Christmas Eve, and today we are cooking our famous sweet potato casserole for Easter Dinner at the shelter.

Or as my dear husband wanted me to clarify, mom is blogging while DAD is coordinating the kids cooking the sweet potato pie.

Later we are off to a Purim Carnival. One of my closest friends is a neighbor that invited us to hunt for Easter eggs this morning.  Somehow it feels like our lives are more balanced exposing our kids to all the holidays and the concept of giving back to the community. Hopefully this is something that will stay with them as they get older, and give them to strength to find their own balance.

Comments

[Jill Asher]

What a very kind 'mitzvah' you are doing, today.

[Devra]

Our family has also done Meals On Wheels on Christmas which was planned by our synagogue. Like you, I want my kids to understand and notice each others differences and similarities and celebrate them!

[NerdMom]

We are thinking about starting to do some of the holiday serving also as the kids get older (the little 2 are 2 yrs and 9 months). When we lived in San Jose we saw a little of this but not very much. But I am assuming that you guys aren't serving the traditional Easter ham;).

[mod*mom]

happy birthday to your boys!!!

they're lucky to have such a great mama!