Our first sukkah!

Last Saturday, we invited friends over to join us in celebrating Sukkot, the Jewish holiday that is both (1) a harvest festival and (2) a commemoration of the temporary homes in which Jewish ancestors lived while wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. The word "sukkah" means "booth" or "tent" (basically, a temporary dwelling) and the plural is "sukkot" -- so it's the Festival of Booths.  It's also a time of happy celebration after the serious introspection we're supposed to take part in during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

It's like the North American customs in reverse -- first, the thinking-back-over-the-past-year and making New Year's resolutions (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), then celebrating a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! with Sukkot and Simchat Torah (which comes at the end of the week of Sukkot).

The custom for the Sukkot festival is to build a temporary structure near one's house and then spend the week of the festival living in it.  "Living" can be defined loosely -- we've been eating meals in it and spending time relaxing and reading (or drawing and coloring, in Benji's case) but not actually sleeping in it.

On Saturday, we actually built the sukkah (with MUCH help from our friends) and started to decorate it.  The kids helped decorate the brick walls nearby with harvest themes (trees, flowers, etc.).  Afterwards, Aaron manned the grill and we all shared a potluck dinner.  It was lots of fun, and a great way to start the Jewish New Year.

More photos of the actual building process will follow later.

--Victoria

Waiting for Benji

I arrive home about 10 or 20 minutes before Benji's bus drops him off on the other side of Stanton Park, so I usually load up the babies and take them with me in the stroller to pick him up.  Most days they are awake and enjoy the stroll but sometimes it puts them both to sleep!  --Victoria

P.S.  I couldn't resist taking photos of Daniel's adorable chubby toes -- enjoy!