Tevet


On the hunt for creative hamentachen. Who is with me? 😂

The rain is in full swing in Israel. Floods, sadly seven deaths and more surprises.

First about the hamentachen here. There was such a variety of sufganiyot that I was disappointed not to see some fun attempts here. Apricot filling, marshmallows, sprinkles, caramel, warm fudge, icing. The ideas are endless!

It was the same feeling on Rosh Hashana when there were only regular challahs, seed and whole wheat. Where were the apple filled ones, cinnamon, pomegranate seeds and anything else that screams high holiday? Someone out there, please take note and start a wide chain of amazing holiday related culinary themes. I had thought of a name. Something like Chalomot (dreams, yes, get it?). Anyhow, feel free to take the idea and roll with it. You can thank me later.

Back to the rain. It is chilly. Not as cold as Boston where you can't feel your face, but the winter now is in full swing. A friend shared with me that the BIG Mall in Beit Shemesh and other towns bring fake snow in so that children can play. Opening up our wardrobe on Shabbat, I noticed our heavy coats and scarves, untouched. A very strange realization after ten years of below freezing weather.

There is a saying that children are fluent in Hebrew by Chanukah. This actually is not true HOWEVER they are truly impressive in understanding the language and picking up words. Our son has a Hebrew tutor who comes to the house to help with conjugation and our daughter has an English tutor. It's slightly backwards, given that our son learned English in the USA pre-arrival and our daughter is learning everything from scratch. English is not taught formally in school for a while.

We are also narrowing down our community hunt. In the running are to (1) stay in Beit Shemesh or (2) move to Meitar (see previous post). We go back and forth about it. The important thing is to visit again. And again. It was also only this past Friday that we found streets in Beit Shemesh with the type of vibe we are looking for. Hopefully we are guided in the right direction for what is meant for us.

Otherwise, January is also filled with family visits, piano lessons, and I started a new job. Deep breaths as the puzzle continues to show itself more or less coming together.

Stay warm.


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