As predicted, we had a fun time at our temple last night. Here’s the evidence: I know, I know, this photo is on the blurry side. But I wanted to show you a bit of the costume finery that showed up. When his parents got up to do a reading, a youngster (actually a former student in my second grade religious school class!) left these goodies, hoping his parents wouldn’t notice them before sitting down. They did. Remember the part about how we have to make noise to drown out the name of that evil guy during the story? They had a “Noise” sign that they held up for a…
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It’s Purim! Be Happy!
Happy Purim to all of my Jewish readers! (Do I have any?) Tonight we head over to our temple for the reading of the Story of Esther. It is sure to be loud and fun, because it’s supposed to be! Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version: Way back in the day in the land of Shushan, King Ahasuerus wanted his wife, Queen Vashti, to appear before his buddies wearing only her crown. She refused to do that, and he banished her from the kingdom. After that, he wanted to find a new Queen so he conducted something like a beauty pageant and chose Esther from hundreds of “applicants”. Mordecai, Esther’s uncle…
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This is the Last Bar Mitzvah Post: I PROMISE!
Although I don’t participate in Wordless Wednesday, I thought today would be a good day to put up some of the fab photos that my sister took on our family’s big day. I will just post them without captions, which will make it Wordless. Oh. But I just put a bunch of words up here to explain my post, so I guess it’s not Wordless at all then, is it? Okay, let’s call it “Shy Wednesday.” Here we go!
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Finally, It’s Party Time!
I am finally ready to give the low-down on the Bar Mitzvah party! You remember, don’t you? The Bar Mitzvah? It happenned almost two weeks ago? If you forgot, read this. And maybe this. But you don’t have to. Keep in mind that the limited photos I will be posting today are from my own digital camera and from the disposable cameras that we placed on every table at the reception (the quality of those isn’t so great, but they’re fun!). When I get photos from Joozie/Julie/Aunt Doody/Jules, I’ll post a couple of the good ones. So, where was I? Oh yes, the party. After the service at the temple,…
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Post-Party Depression Sure Made This Week Fly By…
Yes, you read that right: Post-PARTY depression. I keep thinking about finishing up on my Bar Mitzvah summary posts, but this week has been so busy for me between getting my house back to normal, having the 13-year-old home sick with strep throat Monday and Tuesday (don’t get me started) and subbing a few extra group cycling classes…I’m exhausted just typing about it! I’m going to do this post as quickly as possible (forgive any typos!), because I want to work on a magazine article this afternoon: this is my first free couple of hours in a week or two! I still don’t have access to the photos taken by…
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Only Slightly Freaky Friday
So here’s the first part of how the weekend went down. Shabbat (the Sabbath) is celebrated by Jews from Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown. We have prayer services on Friday evenings and on Saturday mornings. The main portion of the Bar Mitzvah is celebrated on Saturday mornings, but he still participates (this is how it goes at our temple, anyway) in a small part of the service on Friday night. What’s good about that is that he was able to get a feel for being up there in front of everybody before the actual “Big Day”. The first time he went up there to lead a prayer, he…
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Here’s SOME of the 4-1-1!!
Some of you have expressed interest not only in the fun details of how our weekend went, but also more information about a Bar Mitzvah in general, and I’m happy to oblige! I was trying to figure out a way to not get too “Textbook-ish” about it, and it finally occurred to me to just post the wording from the programs we handed out at the temple for our guests! I mean, DUH! So, this post will be informational in nature. I have taken out some names, but I’m sure you’ll have no trouble figuring it out. (By the way, if you are Jewish and need some wording for your…
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What a Weekend!
Well, our son is finally a “Man in Jews”!* I don’t have much time this morning to post about it because we’re exhausted and it would actually be infringing upon our pre-scheduled “Family Pajama Day”, but I wanted to check in with the blog world and tell you that everything yesterday went FABULOUSLY. I’ll post more over the next couple of days, especially when I get the good photos back from Julie and the funny ones back from the disposable cameras we put on every table, for our guests to use. These photos aren’t great but they’ll do for now! More soon! *Background story: Some time before our older son…
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He’s Ready! (and so are we!)
We had the rehearsal for Saturday’s Bar Mitzvah last night. Jim, the kids and I met the thirteen-year-old’s Hebrew tutor and the Rabbi at the temple for the run-through. It went really, really well. I couldn’t believe that my younger son was up there; time flies by and before you know it, they’re 13 years old, 5’4″, with a deep voice that can’t hit the high parts of some of the stuff he had to sing. I started feeling a little emotional. He is so totally ready for this, it’s not even funny. His tutor gave him a lovely gift. It’s a book about Jewish values and he wrote a…
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Latkes, Latkes Everywhere!
Melissa asked me to share how I make latkes/potato pancakes, and I am happy to oblige. Be forewarned, although this “recipe” is about the easiest thing you’ll ever do, there are no exact measurements, so you’ll have to experiment for yourself… Many people grind up their potatoes so they are creating almost a traditional batter for the pancakes. We, however, like the texture of a more “hash-brown-ish” latke. By the way, there are some photos of these latkes here, if you want to read up on our Hanukkahpalooza from a couple weeks ago. Ready? Okay, go: 1. I start off with a big bag of russet potatoes. I wash them…