"The Magic of the Family Meal"

Here is a must read article form Time Magazine by Nancy Gibbs to get your year off on the right footing. "...there is something about a shared meal--not some holiday blowout, not once in a while but regularly, reliably-that anchors a family even on nights when the food is fast and the talk is cheap and everyone has someplace they'd rather be. And on those evenings when the mood is right and the family lingers, caught up in an idea or an argument explored in a shared safe place where no one is stupid or shy or ashamed, you get a glimpse of the power of this habit and why social scientists say such communion acts as a kind of vaccine, protecting kids from all manner of harm." Robin Fox, an anthropologist at Rutgers University talked about "the mysterious way that family dinner engraves our souls. A meal is about civilizing children. It's about teaching them to be a member of their culture." The benefits of 4 or more family meals/week are well documented. If this has been a desire of your heart but you just can't execute, try cooking co-op by roping in 3 more families. Try it for one month and see what magic family meals can bring to your soul. It only gets better with practice.