As you can see from my last posting prior to Yom Tov, the weather held out and we were able to pack the entire kit and caboodle into the succah for one final day of dining al fresco (and the much anticipated, once a year, "stacking allowed" dish policy).
We attempted the whole "squeeze three families, comprising eleven people (and three pack 'n plays) into one three-bedroom apartment" thing again, but this time we actually had sleeping provisions for three of those people in my mother's empty apartment in our building. Sleeping arrangements aside, I fondly recall how my father used to point out that regardless of space, the maximum number of people always seem to congregate in the narrowest part of the living space. Close family - close quarters - loud voices - and we loved every minute of it.
Simchas Torah was absolutely beautiful and replete with "Jahres" niggunim (that's when they sing the choir pieces in a patchwork of all the the tunes used throughout the year strung together as one), majestic dancing and totally "off-schedule" happy little children on sugar highs. My favorite parts though, have to be watching Avram dance with our grandson and hearing our two year old granddaughter say, upon watching Avram dance the "formal dance with the Sefer Torah" after Kriyas HaTorah on the bima, "Opa dance niiiiice!!!".
On Friday night we were honored by the presence of Avram's aunt at dinner, and after Joey walked her home and all the dishes were done (I would intimate that Joey was just trying to get out of doing the dishes, but I must admit that he did the lion's share before bentching), we engaged in a marathon session of Bananagrams that lasted well past midnight. I thought it was over when the lights went out and we were left in the soft glow of the Shabbos candles, but one of my children mildly rebuked me, "What? Your eyes haven't adjusted yet??!?". So the band played on.....
Avram and Joey made a much-appreciated presentation in honor of my birthday (c'mon - who else gets personal-sized ice cream and gorrilla glue for their birthdays, huh?), and before you know it, the triad of three three-day Yomim Tovim, came to a close.
Today has been marked by load after load of tablecloth and towel laundry (I didn't even know I owned this much...) and a deafening silence. There's also NOTHING TO COOK!!! How odd is that???
For a bit of post Yom Tov humor, head on over to Something Different's blog and read her post entitled the Top Ten Signs You Have Just Endured a Three Day Yom Tov.
4 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful yom tov! We were 14 people in 5 (or 4, depending how you look at it) bedrooms, so I feel your claustrophobia...but I too enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. During the day, we had as many as 24 people (if I didn't miss anyone) playing games on our living room floor/dining room table. Wait...did I say during the day? At times, it continued on until midnight! (Go local "camp!")
"the much anticipated, once a year, "stacking allowed" dish policy"
LOL! I guess this is how one can tell that we're kind of related, even if the relationship is - as you put it so wonderfully - "over the ear". After all, we have the same exception to the same rule on Succot... :-)
Mrs. S. -
The only reason that it IS allowed, is because the dishes in the succah are DISPOSABLE, lol....
Exactly! :-)
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