[spaypets]

We also do Shabbat every week, but we're pretty understated. I make challah (I only have one and never heard of having two) from scratch--usually the weekend before and freeze it. We often have roast chicken, which is what we had when I was a kid and I think is pretty common among European Jews. But we don't always (DH -- who isn't Jewish-- does the cooking). Sometimes we have fish. Last week, we just had soup.

We have salad, and some sort of second vegetable. Sometimes we have potatoes. Of course we have wine.

When I was a kid, my mother always made some sort of dessert--which we never had during the week. DH and I are very careful about our weight, so we don't have dessert, nor do we have appetizers or a soup course. Those sorts of extras we do for holy days, like Rosh Hashana or Pesach.

We do the blessings in Hebrew (DD can already do the blessing over the wine by heart!). And we try to be less rushed during the meal, even though we're quite tired by the time Friday rolls around.

I don't think the actual meal matters. What matters is the taking time out to eat and worship together, to talk about the past week, to enjoy each other's company and to take a deep breath.