Passover

Once again Lenny and I were traveling during most of Passover this year. When you are at home, it is much easier to stock up the fridge with yummy food that is Kosher for Passover. But, on the road you need to be much more creative....

We brought some Matzos with us to help us in those creative, emergency moments.

Lenny invented the McMatzos!

Hanukkah

This post is a bit late, but I need to go back and record our wonderful holiday season. Lenny and I had a field trip to Golders Green a week before the first night of Hanukkah to pick out a menorah (also called a Hanukkia) We found this adorable little dreidel menorah! Every night that we could, all three of us gathered around our dreidel menorah and sang the blessings together. It is an amazing process feeling ourselves become a family unit.


Lenny and I both had a hard time finding each other a Hanukkah card. Lenny went into one shop and they said they were too small to have any hanukkah cards. So, he went into the largest card shop in Richmond. They didn't have any cards out in the store, but in the back room they did have a few. When Lenny said that Hanukkah was still going on so they should keep the cards out longer, they said they didn't have room. However, they did have room for at least 600 Christmas. The shop I went into, even had a sign in the window for Hanukkah... but they let me know hanukkah was over. Hum, interesting. I thought it was 8 days! Silly me.



The best night of hanukkah 2009 was the 8th night. We had our closest friends over for dinner. Lenny made amazing latkes using his mom's recipe. I made homemade applesauce to go with them. Truely amazing. Who knew potatoes could be so good! For dinner we had a classic brisket that has started to become a bit of a family tradition. As I was getting ready for everyone to come over, I was filled with the most wonderful feeling. I really felt like family was coming. I felt relaxed and excited. Emily, Jayme, Rebecca, and Dave are some of the most amazing people I know. I really love them to bits. The brisket didn't come out right at all, and I wasn't too upset. I knew if we needed to we would just order pizza! It was family, and they really didn't care what we ate. You know that feeling? It is so wonderful.

L'Shana Tova

This weekend was Rosh Hashanah ~ Jewish New Year. Lenny and I are trying to establish our Jewish home together while we are living in London. But, when you live in London (probably this is true in most of Europe) around 70% of the synagogues are Orthodox. Basically our choices for services are totally-orthodox, mostly-orthodox, or pretty-much-orthodox. :) Lenny and I went to services at the local temple in Richmond; it is pretty-much-orthodox. What does that mean? Women and men sit separately. The entire service is conducted in Hebrew. Every woman wears a skirt and most of them wear hats... but not all of them! That is how you know it is ONLY pretty-much-orthodox and not totally orthodox. Oh, I had one other clue... of course the rabbi would not shake my hand, but the man at the gate who is a member of the congregation did shake my hand. See what I mean? Very liberal!

Overall, the congregation is amazing; they are really nice, very welcoming. But, my baby Hebrew skills struggled to hang in there for 4 hours. What's that I said? Oh, are you re-reading because you think you mis-understood? Yes, I really did say 4 hours. Let's just talk about that for a minute, shall we? 4 hours is a long time. Okay, a really long time. But I did make it. I didn't need to go back the next day.... but I will go back in a week for Yom Kippur. A moment of truth ~ I didn't follow the service for all 4 hours (The full service is actually 5.5 hours) I was reading a Rosh Hashanah survival guide! Seemed appropriate.

Thank you to the Richmond Synagogue for welcoming us to join you. You are a lovely congregation.