Sunday - "Fun"day

Sunday - "Fun"day

Sundays have always been such a special day of the week in our house.  When our kids were growing up, Sunday was set aside as a day for special times.  Of course first we went to church.  The kids always seemed to have fun in Sunday School.  And that was okay.  But after church came the real fun.

For a while my husband worked at a restaurant so after church we would go to the restaurant and have lunch with him.  The kids loved this!  First of all - it was semi-fast food (roast beef sandwiches), we didn't have fast food very often.  Second it was "out to eat" we didn't do this very often either.  Third we were with dad - he worked kind of long hours so we relished this time with him.  Fourth we got to eat at a place where dad was "The Boss" so everyone was super nice and treated us like royalty.  There was nothing about these excursions that had a downside.  PLUS the kids knew that after lunch with dad, we got to go see Grama and Grampa.  SCORE!!!!  This was a typical Sunday for quite a while.

On the weekends my husband didn't work, we would go visit his parents and spend the afternoon visiting or stay for dinner.  This was rich family time.

As the kids got older and our family grew and my husbands job changed we still tried to keep up the regular Sunday visits to the grandparents homes.  Then we moved out of state and it all changed.

When I was growing up we had similar traditions.  As children we experienced frequent and regular Sunday visits with our grandparents. Either we would go there to visit or they would come visit us and spend the night because they came on the bus. They didn't have a car.   Sunday was always special and "fun" in other ways, too!  After church my dad would give us each 25 cents and we were allowed to walk down the block from the church to the local Italian Bakery- Naples- and get a donut.  Then we'd either walk back to church or he'd pick us up.  Lots of the dads from the church did this so there was always a big group of us kids that poured into Naples to buy 1 donut or 1 cookie each.  The bakery must have dreaded Sunday mornings!!!  Anyway,  I never asked what the adults were doing while we were all at the bakery... I wonder???   I suppose all the adults were just talking and hanging out like we were.

Some Sunday's we would go to the Pancake House in our town after church.  That was the most exciting and fun of all for my little brothers and I.  We'd get Silver Dollar Pancakes and I'd smother mine with blueberry syrup.  YUM!!  And in the afternoon, we'd go bowling or to the movies.  We seemed to always do something special on Sunday.  And that's what made it a fun day!  

I guess the point of today's blog is that making Sunday a special day - a "fun" day is important.  It was definitely important in our family. Those regular Sunday grandparent visits allowed for intergenerational relationships within our family to flourish.  The grandkids got to really know the grandparents and the grandparents got to really know the grandkids.  Likewise, finding a way to spend time with a dad that worked long hours was just as important.  Setting aside Sunday as a "fun" day creates and binds a family.  It doesn't have to be going to visit the grandparents, though this is really, really nice, it could be some other kind of Sunday family outing - like a hike or a bike ride, a trip to the park or a picnic, flying kites or shooting off rockets, anything that you can do as a family.  Setting aside Sunday is important to the family unit and it is important to God.  It's so important He made it a commandment. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."  Exodus 20:8  I believe God considers the family holy.  So next weekend, plan a Sunday - "Fun" day with your family and start your own holy traditions.

Blessings!!