Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Another Family Get Together

this morning i heard footsteps and jumped out of bed to see gal leaving with the baby. it seems that she had a 9:30 a.m appointment at the hospital with an endocrinologist to check her thyroid. thank goodness the problem repaired itself. but at 9:00 a.m she was waiting downstairs to be picked up by her mom. i didn't think that the hospital was the safest place for a healthy little baby. gal said that her mother would take the baby to her home. i tried my best to explain where the clinic was situated. luckily, her mother's friend worked there, and 'pulled' some strings for her. i felt guilty all morning, that i didn't rush to get dressed and accompany gal to the hospital. it turned out that her mom stayed with her the entire time.

as her mother was driving away, she invited me to come over at noon for a family celebration. gal's cousin turned three and was getting his first haircut in meron. the family was coming to zefat afterwards, for a festive meal. i quickly drank my coffee and went downstairs to the store to buy chocolate to make some fancy shapes. i had a new chocolate mold that said " i'm a 3 yr. old boy" in hebrew. it was in the shape of a rattle with little scissors on it. the only chocolate that i could find with a good heksher, was a block of bakers' bitter sweet chocolate. i had never used it before. the instructions said to add some oil and use a double boiler to melt it. it already had sugar in it so i decided to try it.

i then stopped into a local toy store to buy a pencil case for the birthday boy. i bought some colored markers to put inside the case. i had some religious articles stickers for a boy and threw them into the gift bag. i also threw in some left over candies from zvi's birthday party. by the time i returned home from the store, it seemed too late to fool around with the chocolate molds.

as i entered the house, miriam called to say that they were just leaving the hospital and that gal was fine. they were on their way to the outdoor market to pick up a few things for the meal. she told me to come over around 1:30 p.m. since i had more time now, i started to make the chocolates. at first, the mixture looked thinner than usual, but it poured out nicely. it froze well and the shapes came out easily and were really clear. i made the entire hebrew alphabet, a dozen 'mazel tovs', a dozen religious shapes, and about twelve chocolate rattles. there wasn't one chocolate left over with this crowd.

the family didn't arrive until 5:00 p.m. i helped miriam peel a sink full of potatoes. i think it was 15 pounds of potatoes for just one meal. as i peeled, she cut them up for roasting. she also put up a pot of chicken legs. while she was putting the potatoes into the oven, i went to play with sahar. he acted as if he didn't know me. i called him a 'snob' and went back into the kitchen. miriam had already made a vat of spaghetti and was making salads. she then got a phone call to make a cake. so she took out her hand mixer and started to make a birthday cake, totally non plused. she is one amazing lady! she ushered us all inside to start to eat.

while her eight kids and me and another five kids and their mom sat down to eat, miriam started to fry chicken cutlets. zvi showed up at the same time as his brother-in-law but they waited to eat. after the women and children finished eating, the men came in for their meal. we all crammed into the boy's room to hang out. miriam set up the next round of food and brought out another batch of cutlets. i don't think she ate anything the entire day. miriam had to go to her daughter's party at school and said goodbye and left.

i slipped into the kitchen and washed some dishes. the house was trashed from all the little kids. they were actually, all very sweet children. they were aged 6, 5, 3 1 1/2 and 4 months old. the family left at 8:00 p.m. and gal and zvi went home. i went over to visit my niece. i hadn't seen them in nearly a month. i had a few outfits for menachem mendel from the gift package that my sister ann had sent from california. he was fast asleep and his parents were just sitting down to supper. they asked me to join them but i declined. i was still full from the dinner and i definately, needed to walk home. it was pretty mild outside.

i'm still revamping my tu b'shvat menu and searching the markets for certain fruits. i gave up on finding non roasted pistashios. perhaps, i'll hit the health food store tomorrow. i still need some carob powder and apricots. and i guess i should try to square things at the water department. i just remembered that i want to go to yoga aat 9:00 a.m.

3 comments:

  1. I'm sure you will find everything you need for TuBShvat. You are quite the resourceful gal!

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  2. i just posted the blog and a moment later mikimi had already sent in her comment. i can still remember in past years using jars of jam for fruits at tu b'shvat because the fruits were so limited here. and when could you find grapes and pomegranates at this time of year? last year was a last minute find of fresh carobs.

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  3. Miriam does sound amazing! But you do too. Good luck with the diet and exercise class. It has been so cold here lateley that my exercising has slowed down--and I've regained two pounds!

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