It’s been a while and there has been so much that I haven’t written about! Where to begin?
Let me start with the chag. We had a really nice first day. Friday night the kids went to shul and then we ate in the Sukkah. The weather was nice but there was still a little bit of the skunk smell in the air left over from the Friday morning festivities. In case you are just tuning in to this blog, on Fridays the leftists protest the wall that we built near our Yishuv and the army has been using the “skunk” truck on Fridays to try and disassemble them. It winds up leaving the yishuv with a yucky smell. So Friday night we ate with the remnants of the smell still in the air but it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be.
I found out on Friday afternoon that the kids all go Sukkah hopping on Friday night! I had no idea and it was too late to go out and buy candy. Luckily, we agreed to host my neighbor’s parents at our house for the chag and as a thank you they brought us candy. When the neighbor’s son found out that we had no candy for the night, to give to the sukkah hoppers, he went home and must have told his mom and she told him to come back to our house and take the candy back so she could refill it even more with more candy so we would have stuff to give out! So, luckily, we had stuff. I am not sure that our Sukkah would have gotten egged, like houses on Halloween who don’t have candy or treats, but I didn’t want the kids who came to our house to be disappointed.
Anyway, the way that we found out about all of this is that Talia’s friend’s mother called to ask if Talia could go with her daughter and 2 other girls from 8-9:30 that night. So we arranged for the girls to pick Talia up and she went Sukkah hopping with them. Ben stayed home at first and helped me greet the kids who came to our Sukkah but when one kid was his age and was accompanied by his mother, he asked why he couldn’t go with one of us. So Eric took him to hop for a little while and then they came home and he went to sleep very happily.
Talia, on the other hand, came home a few minutes early and asked if she could go back out. We told her that she was early and she could go out for 15 more minutes. She showed up at 9:45, fifteen minutes late (we weren’t upset) and asked again if she could go out. We were in bed!! We told her no and she threw a complete fit! Apparently all of her friends were still out and she was the ONLY one who had to go home. It took us a while to convince her that it wasn’t that all of her friends were out but maybe some were and she went to bed quite unhappily.
On Sukkot we had 2 families for a total of 19 people in the Sukkah. It was a really hot day but we have the nice breeze by our house so it wasn’t too unbearable for us to sit in the Sukkah. Shul didn’t end until 11:30 and I basically sat downstairs where groups are held with the kids and with Keren for an hour waiting for shul to be over. I didn’t realize it would be over so late or I wouldn’t have come that early. Anyway, the meal was very nice and during dessert friends from camp who live in Modiin came over b/c they were at his parent’s house here. The company wound up staying until late and they stayed even later and by the time everyone left it was time for Eric to go to Mincha and for me to clean everything up. About 20 minutes after Eric walked in the door Shabbat and Yom Tov were over!
Saturday night we got the kids into bed early since they were so tired from the night before (Keren was exhausted from not napping b/c of the company and fell asleep in her highchair while eating!) and we prepared for our camping trip. Eric ran around borrowing things like sleeping bags and a cooler and I packed up the kids and myself and the kitchen. We were nervous, since we hadn’t done anything like this before, that we were missing important things. Also, one of the couples that came over that day had told us that they were also going camping the day after us and that they take a ton of stuff and did we have a lantern and did we have this and that. They made me feel like we weren’t cut out for camping and we needed to properly plan it tons of time in advance. Luckily we didn’t listen to them.
Sunday we left for our trip at 8am. We met our friends who we were going with at the gas station and we were supposed to drive up with them. Unfortunately, they had their mattresses tied to the roof of their car and it wasn’t holding well. We tried to help them for a long time and it wasn’t working so they finally decided that they would leave them at home and bring their air mattresses and we would help them blow them up when we got there with our pump that Eric bought the day before the plugs in to the car! In the end, however, when we got up there and tried to blow them up she realized that she forgot that she needed a transformer and they couldn’t use them at all.
So we wound up driving up separately and meeting them there. We wound up getting there at the same time or maybe 5 minutes after them b/c we made a ton of stops on the way. Unfortunately, Ben had an upset stomach and every time we just passed a rest stop, he would have to all of a sudden go to the bathroom!! So we wound up making a bunch of stops on the side of the road and I took him to make. It was gross!! We were so mad at him b/c he had an upset stomach b/c he ate too much candy from the Sukkah hopping the day before and that morning!! Also, Ben really wanted to see the Kineret b/c he’s heard so much about it. So we went the long way up to the Galil so he could see the Kineret. So between the stopping and the Kineret, it took us a while to get there.
When we got there we all ate lunch at the place where we were hiking and we went on a small, but nice hike. The kids got to play in the water a bit during the hike and they really enjoyed it.
Around 3 we headed to Horshat Tal, where we were camping. We set up the tents and got organized and while Eric started the BBQ, my friend and I went to the pool with the kids. The pool is basically a man-made lake. The water is freezing cold b/c the water that feeds into it is from the Chermon Mountain. Nevertheless, the kids enjoyed playing in the water and going down the water slides that they had there.
We came back and made the BBQ and roasted marshmallows. Oh, our tent was AWESOME!! It was huge and really nice!! At around 7 I tried to get Keren to sleep but she wasn’t having any of it. She was exhausted but wouldn’t fall asleep. Eric had more patience and was able to sing her to sleep. The kids went to sleep very nicely after that. We had a bit of a problem b/c our air mattress had a hole in it so we made the kids sleep on the floor with their sleeping bags and took their mattresses. Talia had no problem but Ben was angry. So we moved our air mattress back into the tent after taking it out and we reorganized and he was happy to sleep on an un-inflated mattress.
I wish I could say that I slept that night! I probably slept an hour overnight and then another 2 hours from 6-8 am. I wasn’t comfortable and Keren was on me most of the night and at one point these people came and set up this light that was as bright as the sun and it lit up our tent. Then in the middle of the night it became freezing cold and I took Eric’s fleece and slept in that. We were also on a slight hill and I kept rolling off the mattress. So did Keren! I think if the other air mattress hadn’t had the hole I probably would have been more comfortable and slept better. Oh well.
In the morning Eric made pancakes for the kids and for us too on this cool gas powered burner that he bought the day before we left. It was so nice!! The kids basically played in this stream that went through the whole area there. The water, again, is freezing there, but that didn’t stop them! They were very busy all morning. I took a shower in the bathrooms that they had there and it was pretty pleasant.
We packed up the tents and the cars, made sandwiches and all went over to the pool again until close to noon. We checked out of the campgrounds and went to ur next tiyul spot. The place was described in the guide book as being an easy hike with a lot of water and very suitable for kids. We did not find that was the case. It was a very hard hike with very little water. I mean, there were waterfalls but you had to jump into deep pools of water if you wanted to go in. Also, the hike was 2 hours and you had to have a lot of water. So we decided to just do a little part of the hike and then go back. At one point it was very hard and we had the little ones with us so I went ahead with the husband and the bigger kids and Eric and the wife went back with the smaller ones. We had a great time but it wasn’t easy.
When we were finished we took the kids to get ice cream at a gas station and then continued on to get dinner. We decided to go back through Teveria to get the food. We hit a bit of traffic and we got separated and they decided they were just going to eat in the car, while we decided to find a place with a Sukkah and all eat together. So, we parted ways, ate dinner and went home. The kids and I all fell asleep in the car. When we got home we transferred them with no problems and went to sleep ourselves.
Today we decided to take it easy. We hung out in the morning. Eric let me sleep late and even got the kids showered since they hadn’t bathed in 2 days and dressed. He left Keren for me to do b/c she was in a good mood and he didn’t want to ruin it with a bath. She doesn’t like having her hair washed and screams when I do it. I woke up and started putting everything away and doing laundry.
At 1 we decided to go get bagels and play in the park that they have next door. It was an amazing park with really tall slides. The kids had a great time. We also bumped into a friend of mine from ulpan who told us they were moving to Riverdale for 2 years! She is from England and she is very nervous so we talked to her for a long time and reassured her that it is a nice place to live and that she’ll be happy there.
Next we went to the mall in Modiin to see what was happening there. They will often have fun things for the kids to do there during chagim. Sure enough they had painting and they had circus arts. So the kids each painted something to hang in their room and the we moved onto the juggling and plate twirling, etc. Keren fell asleep on Eric’s shoulder while we played.
We got home around 6 and Eric went to work while I fed the kids and combed their hair and got them into bed.
Here is a link to the pictures that we took over the last few days. There were too many to put into the post so I am adding the link that should take you to York Photo and allow you to see them all. Enjoy!
One Response for "Sukkot – so far…"
one question — how long did it take you to write this blog??? Longer than the whole chag!
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