Dd16 came home from school several days ago and casually asked if I’d mind if she invited some classmates for shalosh seudos (the third meal) on Shabbos.  She had asked me last week but I’d told her since we don’t yet have a working sink in the kitchen, oven, or fridge (we have a fridge and oven, but they don’t work properly), beds to sleep on, or even a table big enough for our family to sit at, I’d like to wait another week.  So she waited.  At the beginning of the week, we bought a dining room table and eight chairs, and all of the kids now have beds (haven’t yet found beds for dh and I, but I hope I’ll find them soon!), so though I still don’t have a kitchen sink, oven, or fridge that work properly, I agreed.  After all, we’ve been here a full three weeks now!

She mentioned when she came home a couple of days ago that a few classmates were coming and that they’d each bring a dish.  Very nice – I’m so glad when my kids are comfortable bringing friends home.  Then yesterday she mentioned that she thinks there will be between 8 and 15 girls coming.  Oh.  Very nice!  It seems the girls were thinking of doing something as a class this Shabbos, and dd16 had the idea for inviting people for shalosh seudos before she heard anyone else was thinking of something, so this is now the official class get-together.

I’m glad she’s doing this, and it’s so nice to see how quickly dd16 is not only settling but thriving.  When we were looking at apartments, I was very clear that the most important thing to me was a central location, even if the apartment itself wasn’t as nice.  Almost immediately upon arriving, we saw what a good decision that was, since the kids have friends over or go to friends almost every day!

If you’re wondering about where we’ll put everyone, the neighbor who loaned us the folding table and 11 plastic chairs told us she wants to give us the chairs, so combined with the eight we just bought and one cheapy folding chair that the old tenants left behind, we now have seating for 20. Plus we have couches they can sit on – we have a living room/dining room combo known here as a salon, so it’s all in the same area.  We returned the folding table the day before dd made this announcement, so I don’t actually have a table for more than sixteen people (at the very most) to sit at, but things are more casual here and dd thinks it will be fine!

Avivah