Channukah

Yes, I know that most people are already blogging about spring cleaning and what they are going to do during their summer vacation, but me, I still haven't written about what we did last Channukah (which, by the way, wasn't that long ago), so before I forget all about it, I'd better quickly jot it all down.


Channukah began on a Friday this year, and I don't know if that's the reason, but it seemed to go by really quickly. It was also Meshi's birthday, so between all the birthday cake and donuts I'm going to need many, many hours to work it all off. The girls had the week off from school, and I had lots of work to do, so I had to 'fit' them in between work, or send them off to friends or to the grandparents (hooray for grandparents!). Ben only had the last couple of days off, and he spent his time with Granny and Grandpa too. He even slept over for the first time!

It wasn't all work though, we did take a day off to do something fun with the children. We went up to Jerusalem to the Science Museum – we hadn't been there in a while and some of the exhibitions had changed. As usual, a great time was had by all...we played, saw all their awesome exhibitions, learned about fingerprints, the science of fun fairs, and the girls even learned about DNA!

After the museum we went to Mahaneh Yehuda Market where we did some shopping, had a great time and ate at a very authentic little restaurant in the market.

Did you know that you can buy halva in dozens of different flavours? Seriously. We stopped at the halva stall and after tasting what seemed like most of flavours we took home some lemon-nana (mint) tea and King (with 8 different spices)flavoured halva. Being Channukah there were also all sorts of different shaped and coloured sofganiot in the shuk, so we had to try some of those too.

As we were making our way out of the market it was candle lighting time, so we joined in with the Chabad's huge channukiah lighting in the middle of the pedestrian mall.

Needless to say, we all got home tired, full and content.

Besides our day out we spent time with family and friends and, of course, there was lots more food involved. I think the pictures say it all.

Ben's Channukah Party

Channukah with Family



The Science Museum

The Market

Did I mention the halva....

and the sofganiot?

Baby Meshi Turns Six!

I didn't quite give Meshi's birthday due attention so here I am, ready to tell you all about it.

Her birthday fell on a Friday this year, and it was also the first night of Channukah, so she had to share, but nevertheless in true Meshi style she made the most of her special day.

Shiraz enjoyed it too. She woke up in the middle of the night and made lots of sweet birthday notes for her sister, which she hid all over her room, in her bed and even in her pajamas!

As customary in our home, the birthday girl was woken up with balloons and singing..."happy birthday to Meshi..." which seemed to go on forever (every time we stopped she ordered us to start again...that's the Meshi we all know and love) and there was even a special, quick, before school birthday breakfast.

Her class had a Channukah party that day, so she didn't take any cake to school that day, we left that till after the Channukah break, but after school we took her out to eat at her favourite place...Aroma! And later we went to Granny and Grandpa to light the Channukah candles, eat dinner and have a small family 'birthday party' (ie. lots of cake and sweets). Did I mention that she got LOTS of birthday presents?

And of course, she took cupcakes to school the week after Channukah. Made by Granny and decorated by mommy, Meshi and Brett.

I know that it wasn't Shiraz's birthday, but I just have to (proudly) add, that she was awarded the prestigious 'star of the class' award – and we also had to take cakes to her class that day – she chose to take brownies with Shabbat Shalom written on them.