Thanksgiving 2008

This year, we went again to our friends, T&JG, to celebrate Thanksgiving. I spent much of the evening talking with YC, with whom I laugh a lot!! We stayed a bit later, so we would also have a bit more time with T&J. It was really nice to be with friends for Thankgsiving (though I still miss doing Thanksgiving with NATIV).

For Shabbat, we went to my in-laws for Thanksgiving Shabbat. It was really nice to celebrate with family as well.

Had I been more put together, I would have made arrangements for us to stay in Beit Shemesh on Thursday night, since both T&JG and my in-laws live there. Since this shabbat was Shabbat Irgun (Irgun means organization, but there is nothing organized about Israeli youth groups!), Y did not have school on Friday anyway, and it would be no big deal for MD and A to miss school.

There is no way to translate the craziness of youth groups here, in this case B'nai Akiva, that culiminate in a month of intense devotion called Chodesh Irgun, the apex of which is Shabbat Irgun.

The Thursday night before Shabbat Irgun is Laila Lavan (White Night), during which the kids stay up all night. Y's school just cancelled school on Friday, automatically conceding defeat to the youth. MD & A technically had school, but I did not send them.

When Y was little, I did not understand this facet of Israeli culture, and made her go to school even when she insisted that nobody else would be there. Being American, I thought that if there was school, the teachers would be teaching. Silly me. The few poor kids who came to school would watch some sort of movie (of little or no educational value). Eventually, I learned.

Then, Saturday night, the B'nai Akiva kids put on shows (highly improvisational, very silly, filled with inside jokes I would not understand even if I could hear/understand what they were saying in the first place).

My kids are not in B'nai Akiva (to my chagrin, but that is another story), but many of their friends are. My kids wanted to go watch their friends' plays tonight, but we did not get back to Jerusalem in time. Oh well.

What can I say, I am still an American. I like my kids to go to bed on time and go to school in the morning.

Still, it was nice to have a long weekend (Thursday night to Saturday night), it almost felt like Thanksgiving weekend.

Y's school went all the way, and cancelled school on Sunday as well. She really does have a full, long weekend. Lucky her!

My in-laws gave us the leftover turkey (plus a whole lot of extras), so I'm not complaining!

Hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA