Long Island Bar Mitzvah

We spent the weekend in Long Island, attending the Bar Mitzvah of the son of some college friends of mine (Steve & Eileen). For those of you who have never experienced a Long Island Bar Mitzvah...well, I'm not sure I'll be able to explain it. They are so over-the-top, bigger than anything you can imagine. Much fun, excellent food, and good times. But mind-boggling.

We drove down Friday afternoon (David of course could not pull it together to leave when the boys got out of school, so we left at 3pm). It was a long ride, since we were in rush-hour in several spots. We stopped for dinner at a diner in southern CT, and got to the hotel around 8pm.

Of course Sofia had slept in the car, so she was up until way after 11pm. The boys got settled fairly quickly. We had a suite, so plenty of room. The boys got a pull-out couch, while Sofia slept with me and David on a king in the bedroom.

Up bright and early on Saturday. I'd brought food, so we didn't need to get breakfast; Sofia had her grits, Micah had oatmeal, Sam a poptart (organic!).

****

We interrupt this blog to comment about the amazing spectacular of today's Inauguration. President Obama (Oh, how wonderful that sounds!) gave an incredible speech, as expected. Please let us all work together to make this a better country and a better world.

*****

The service was in Plainview. I spent most of the time in the loby with Sofia and Micah, but David and Sam stayed in the whole time. The little ones did sit for a while at first. There's a tradition of throwing candy at the bar mitzvah child, and then the little kids run up and collect it. Most shuls use soft Sunkist chewies, since they are soft and allergy-friendly. So I gave ONE to Sofia. And then she spun around like a dervish for 20 minutes!

After the service, we had lunch at the shul. It was nice to see some old friends from college; they all have teenagers now!

We went back to the hotel, and hung out all afternoon. We took the kids swimming for a while, which was fun. But it was a long afternoon. Eventually we got dressed for the party:


And off we went to East Meadow Jewish Center. I think I was there for another event years ago - it was very familiar.

First was the cocktail reception. Awesome. seven or eight different food stations, with all sorts of foods - burgers and dogs, sliced meats, fajitas, chinese and thai food, pasta, caviar, soup, infused vodka, slushies, etc.

Micah tries to sample some vodka (glass was empty!):


Sam looking sharp:


Sofia passed out in the stroller as the dinner began, and stayed asleep through the very loud music of the evening.

(She woke up right at the end to use the potty).

It took a little while for my guys to warm up:


But eventually even David had fun:


Micah managed to charm the DJ team (yes, team - a DJ and four or five additional dancers - I guess that's what they do on Long Island!), and spent a lot of time comparing magic tricks and eating dessert:



And the DJ guys kept flipping my sons over!



We got back to the hotel around 12:30 am, and the kids DID manage to sleep late the next morning. We had brunch in the hotel with the college gang and some family.


We just hung out at the hotel all day, relaxing. The kids watched TV and played Nintendo. We did go swimming for a while, too. In the early evening, we found a kosher restaurant (there are MANY in Long Island!) for dinner.

Monday morning we got out, and into Manhattan around noon. We met with friends at 1:00 after their daughter's doctor's appointment was done (daughter has Familial Dysautonomia, a rare genetic disorder). It was great to see them, and we had a lot of fun at lunch.

We hit the road around 3pm, and got home at 7:30. Then David had to plow the driveway, because we'd got 5" over the weekend!