Rosh Hashanah Dinner with Family + Friends
The Jewish holidays happen to be my favorite. Specifically, Rosh Hashanah and Passover are the best excuse to invite family and friends over for a super fun dinner.
Since I love to entertain, I take these holidays pretty seriously when it comes to the menu and tablescape. This year, I had an extra set of hands with my cousin Daniella in town AND...with Crafty Maggie to work on all the fine details.
Daniella and I spent hours prepping the food on Tuesday night. I always serve a traditional Jewish menu for the high holidays which include recipes by my Canadian Family members. We made Aunti Debi's Chicken meatballs, Aunti Sandy's peach brisket and Boobie Frieda's gefilte fish and Matzo ball soup.
I don't have a bar cart in our apartment and I wanted a place to put the wine and glasses however I didn't want to break the bank with this purchase. I found the most PERFECT cart by Oh Joy for Target for $129. The best part is? It came fully assembled! Daniella and I just pulled it out of the box and voila! I'm totally obsessed with this beauty...
I wanted to play off the fall season for our tablescape so Daniella and I let the flower market dictate our color palette. The market was filled with dahlias in burgundy, soft pinks and purple. We brought home an assortment of these florals and tons of greenery and our incredible intern, Natalie made us a floral runner for the center of the table and a few arrangements for the tables and bar cart.
Crafty Maggie was busy all day adding to the most beautiful touches to the table. She designed menus off of the flowers that we picked up and added a gold leaf splatter of paint to each. My sister Mandy had the amazing idea of spray painting apples white with a stroke of gold paint for the seating cards and Maggie nailed it with the execution.
Maggie also designed a water bottle label with each kid's name on it for their seating assignment at the kids table.
Rosh Hashanah is the celebration of the Jewish New Year. For the new year we start our meal by dipping apples in honey to signify a sweet and healthy year ahead.
My husband Adam's family is not particular large, but I'm used to very large Jewish dinners from growing up. So his parents are always at our table and to fill in, I invite several friends. For the past several years, Ilana, Mike, Mazzy and Harlow have joined us and after so many years, it is like they are family. We were also joined by cousin Daniella and my friend Emily and her boys Charlie and Giles as well as Maggie who experienced her first ever Jewish Holiday dinner!
I wanted to set up some activities for the kids to enjoy when they walked in. We made stamps out of potatoes and gave them each a plate of paint + a blank piece of card stock to make cards with. Each kid also had a plastic tumbler that they could decorate with stickers and then take home. This craft lasted for about 30 seconds, they barely ate and then we popped on a movie with a huge bowl of popcorn. At least I tried.
It was the most lovely evening of incredible food, company and fun. From my table to yours, I want to wish all our Jewish friends L'Shana Tova!