A Lovely Holiday

It really was nice. The weather sucked - rainy and overcast, very warm Monday night (I wore a tank top and my thin tallit [prayer shawl]).

Monday afternoon the kids and I relaxed a bit (while I cooked the brisket). Laura and Lilie arrived and we started getting ready for dinner. David of course came home stressed from work. Monday dinner was just the 7 of us, so I made a roast chicken and some noodles (rice pasta for Sofia) and broccoli. Oh, and soup - barley vegetable, which the boys hated and Sofia loved.

Services Monday night went ok. The kids were overtired (service started at 7:30), and since David was already in a bad mood, they did not want to sit with him. Micah kept coming over to the edge of the bimah (the reader's "stage") to ask me what page we were on (since the 9 adults sitting near him could not answer to his satisfaction). It's tough for me when the faily is there. I have to concentrate on the service, but I also focus on the kids, and on David glaring at them (and at me!) about their behavior.

The funniest thing is we go through this EVERY year, and every year he doesn't remember it. So Laura and I are fairly calm about the whole situation. I don't know what we would do without Laura!

Tuesday morning I sent the family off to our regular shul, so I could concentrate on my 'gig' in peace. We had a good turn-out, probably around 200 people. I was even happy with how the Children's Service went this time - usually I don't like leading it, but this time we'd settled on grades 1-4, and I had both a story and a play as well as the service.

I got back into the sanctuary mid-way through Rabbi S's sermon, and I was just in awe of her. She really spoke TO me. Her topic was about nurturing our childrens' spirituality.

We finished services around 1:12, which meant we'll probably hear from the RitCom that we were too long again, but it was good. Right after the Shofar Service, most of the people left, so we had a small crowd for the last part of the service.

I stopped home to change, and then went to our friends' home for our yearly holiday lunch. It was nice, but I was exhausted, and both Sofia and Lilie were crabby, so eventually I took all the girls home and David and the boys stayed a while longer.

R came over in the evening, so we had leftovers while I cooked the turkey. It was fun to see her.

Wednesday morning. David got the kids out early because he was scheduled to lift the Torah early. On second day, the shul where I work does a "Family" service, really more of a participatory service. So we only had about 40 people tops, but it was really fun. Instead of a full Torah reading, we split it into 3 readings and call everyone up in groups by last name, so everyone has a chance to see the Torah. And they just got a new Torah this year, with much bigger and clearer print.

The service went really well. I have fun working with Rabbi S. We finished around 12:15, so I was home way before my family. I finished cooking and setting up, and around 2:30, my friends N & D and their families arrived for "lupper" (lunch/supper). Food came out really good - brisket, turkey, stuffing, quinao (grain), asparagus, D's Israeli salad, N's fruit salad. The kids played fairly well together.

Everyone left around 5:15, we got the kids bathed and in bed on time, and I was sound asleep by 9:30.

I'm heading down to the basement now to bring some stuffed animals out of purgatory (where they have been since the Lice incident). Not too many, I promise!