Purim, Purim and more Purim

Thank goodness it’s finally over!!!  I can’t stress how much Purim there has been here.  It is the never-ending holiday!!

I will start with the fast.  That was the first day that the kids were off from school.  We decided to take the day and go to Ikea and get a coat tree so we have somewhere now to put our coats, yay!  The kids had a great time there playing in the play area.  Eric mentioned to them that the first time we went there it was soon after we made aliyah and they couldn’t speak or understand Hebrew.  This time they could do both and it would be easier for them in the play area.  We shopped for an hour while they played and then we got some food to eat and Eric just watched us eat.  At least the food there isn’t great so he wasn’t missing much.

When we came home Eric went up to work (since they changed the clocks in America he now works from 3 until…) and the kids and I made another batch of hamentaschen and they assembled the mishloach manot.  They did a very nice job.  I also made the kids dinner and made Eric a noodle pudding to break his fast on.  Before we knew it, it was time to go to hear megillah.  Eric went and I got the kids ready in their costumes.  We got there at the end only to find out that the carnival was in half an hour and not right after the megillah.  Shoot.  So we all went home but Talia stayed to play a bit.  My hope was that I would nurse Keren and put her to sleep and then let Ben watch TV so that he would get nice and tired (since it was already 7) and he wouldn’t want to go back to shul.  That’s EXACTLY what happened!!  So Talia came home and asked me for money so she could get into the carnival and I asked Ben if he wanted to go and he said no.  So he fell asleep on the couch and I put Keren into bed and Eric babysat/worked.  I joined Talia at the carnival where everyone but her, thank G-d, was winning goldfish.  We played some games together where she won a TON of candy and then I went upstairs with the other mothers to hear megillah (30 mins flat) and she continued to play.  We got home after 9 and she went straight to bed.

That night Eric had his mishmar ezrachi thingy where he goes in a cop car with another volunteer and they patrol.  It was at something like 1 in the morning.  He said he enjoyed it.  He had a ton of calls for firecrackers.  Apparently they are really into the firecrackers on Purim here.  They are illegal here too but not like in NY where you really can’t shoot them off.  Here they don’t really control it as well.  He also said he saw students, kids, holding their drunk Rebbi up as he walked through the streets in a drunken stupor in Kiriyat Sefer.  So sad.

Anyway, Purim was MADDNESS here!!!  I went to the later megillah reading and it was an all women’s megillah reading.  For those of you reading this who are in shock, yes, you have every right to be!  It is SO NOT ME to go to one of these things but I thought I would try it out since it was recommended.  In the end, it was fine.  Not such a big deal.    I thought I would love it or hate it but I didn’t feel strongly about it one way or another.  It was nice that Talia was with me.

We made about 25 shalach manot and I thought for sure that it was going to be enough but so many people kept coming and coming to the door!  The streets were hopping here.  The neighbor across the street set up schnapps along the wall of his house and was singing and dancing and drinking with all the passers by.  There was honking in the streets and cars going by with loud music playing.  It really was an incredible sight.  My kitchen window faces the street and I was busying cooking for the seudah that we were going to have at my aunt and uncle’s house and we had a nice time watching all the stuff going on outside.  So after we finished our last package, Eric and I scrambled to take the stuff that we got from other people, plus the extra hamentaschen that I luckily made the day before and slapping together more mishloach manot.  It was crazy!!  Eric said that next year we will be more prepared and make more but I think that next year we should just buy more containers and I will do the same thing and recycle b/c we were left with almost no nosh afterwards, it was great.  Unfortunately, at my aunt and uncle’s house we got 4 more and we got a TON of stuff from them and now we have a lot again.  Oh well!!

So in the afternoon we went to my aunt and uncle for the seudah.  It was nice.  We had a TON of food between everything that we all helped to make.  I brought my triangle cookies that I made and that I put orange fondant on top of to look like hamentaschen and then Eric wrote every one’s name on them with an edible marker and we used them for place cards.  Everyone got a kick out of them.  They looked adorable.  I took pictures of them and of everything that we did this Purim but I can’t upload the pictures now because Eric is working so I will post them all in tomorrow’s blog.

Anyway, we got home late and the kids all fell asleep in the car and we carried them in.

Today the festivities continued!!  It was Shushan Purim today and we had hoped to go to Yerushalayim but were advised that there would be a ton of traffic and it would be hard to get in.  Then the kids didn’t want to go b/c “their ears would pop” and then there was the fact that Keren slept until close to 1 after Eric put her back in at 9 for her nap and I couldn’t drag myself out of bed either until close to 11 after getting up with the kids at 6:30.  So we nixed that idea and just went to the Purim carnival here.  The weather was really gorgeous and it was nice and sunny and we all had a great time (minus Ben’s meltdown at the end).

We came home, ate lunch and the kids and I folded laundry while Keren slept and Eric worked.  I had 3 loads waiting for me for days and I taught the kids how to fold underwear which they really enjoyed doing!!  They also enjoyed walking around in Eric’s pants with his waist coming up to their heads.  Then we made popcorn that was promised to Ben (that was a big part of the meltdown).  We had a ton of baked goods between what I baked and what other people gave us.  Up the block from us they were collecting leftover mishloach manot to give to the needy.  So I took a walk with Talia and Ben and we donated a bunch of baked goods to them so they could package them up nicely and give them away.  The women there were so sweet.  She invited me in and introduced me to her sister and showed me pictures of the family and the sister thanked me and kissed me and kissed Talia and she couldn’t stop kissing Ben.  She kept kissing and kissing him and he was laughing.  It was so cute.   

When we came home we woke Keren up from another crazy long nap and we went to the mall for projects and dinner.  The mall here is great during holidays b/c they have a lot of fun things for the kids to do.  So Eric said he would come with us and he would work in a cafe while we did our thing and then we would all eat together.  So we did a couple of projects that the kids enjoyed and then we went to eat.  We met Eric and I saw that Robin was there with her kids so we all sat and ate together. 

So now the kids are asleep and it is nice and early and I am going to relax!!  YAY!!  I am so happy Purim vacation is over.  I need a vacation after this!

Really cute pictures to come tomorrow night.  Stay tuned…