Moving on... And end of ulpan...

Welcome back.  It's been a little while.  I've been super busy but apparently doing nothing.

Politics : even though I hate politics

Life in Israel continues along.  Seemingly much better than whatever chaos seems to be going in in America.  Okay  so our prime minister is being investigated for a few things and the health minister seems to be taking kickbacks for something else.  But Israel is also planning to take in 100 orphaned Syrian refugee children.  As opposed to the USA that is now blocking entry to more  and more people.

School :

Well,  ulpan for the little guy is coming to an end.  They have been working on a special performance,  which was yesterday.  They did a dance with the flags (called daglanut)  and in my non biased opinion,  they did a great job.

Someone said something to me this summer and it really has been resonating with me.  She said that in Israel,  moments that make you feel connected to the land and to the Jewish people will just happen.  His school ceremony certainly fit the bill.  No one had to build a fake kotel and take my kids picture in front of it,  or orchestrate an elaborate Israel day.  Here they just call that a day! I'm not saying that the Israel days they used to have in their schools weren't good.  They were and at the time we would get all excited over it.  But now we have jumped up to really just being a part of what is happening here even if we lose some stuff in the translation.  (but we get the gist,  usually.  I hope) This is where I remind you that Israel is open to you.  It's never too late to move here.  And a friendly reminder to have a valid passport.  Always.

 We will be sad to see his ulpan end,  but I think he is ready for a regular classroom.  He has been bored in ulpan for a while,  so we shall see if he is ready for the challenge of a full time Hebrew classroom.  I know that he is happy not to have to ride the bus anymore.  He complains everyday that it smells like bleach.  Ummm,  it could smell a lot worse kid!

After his ceremony,  the adult ulpan crew headed back to our ulpan.  But we decided that since we would arrive during break time,  we should stop for some coffee first.  I'm sorry to report that I didn't get a picture,  since you know I'm obsessed with latte photos.  We arrived in time for the second half of class.  Phew!

Side nots: youngest child  leaves the oddest things in his pants pockets.  I was doing laundry the other day and his hexaflexagon escaped.  He apparently is making them for all of his friends at school.

What is a Hexaflexagon?


The girls went away for a shabbaton with the middle school grades in their high school (if that makes sense).  It seems like they had a great time, although one did comment that,  omg,  they had to listen to so much Hebrew.  Ummm,  yeah kids.  Because we live in Israel.  Duh.  (and I say that duh with love girls).   I definitely felt very outnumbered by boys this shabbat. At least we had a lot of company over (15 including us). And most importantly for the girls,   their grade made sweatshirts so they have some official,  "I live in Israel" gear.

One thing I really love about the schools here  (aside from the education) is that when they charge you for school (yes,  we do pay for school here,  it is just pennies compared to Jewish schools in America) is that all of the trips they take the kids on are included in the school fees.  They don't ask us to first pay tens of thousands of dollars and then tack on a shabbaton or an overnight to Masada or an apple picking trip.   All part of the fees.  Go Israel!!!

Cholim Chadashim חולים חדשים:

This is a play on words of Olim Chadashim עולים חדשים (New immigrants).  And means new sickness.  Basically because we are not used to the germs and illnesses here we get sick a lot during the first year.  And wouldn't you know it,  my first real illness is right before my big exam.  I can't hear anything,  I can't think and I want to hide in bed.  Will I magically be cured by tomorrow?  Unlikely.  I have at least one sick child as well.  Luckily just colds but annoying anyway.  Now it's a game of  who gets it next and how much tea  can we drink?

Ulpan:

Which bring us to our favorite subject.  Ulpan.  Hebrew studies.  Tomorrow is my big exam.  I would say that I don't care about my grade,  except:

#1  I need to pass the gimmel exam in order to take my nursing exam in English.  Messed up I know,  but whatever.  If I don't pass gimmel then I have the option of taking the nursing exam in Hebrew.  Or I can take it in English and take a separate Hebrew proficiency exam.

#2  oh yeah,  I'm  only in ulpan bet (level 2) but taking the level 3 exam.  No biggie.

#3 it's possible that I'm  slightly competitive.  Don't ask my sister.

Hebrew :

And ulpan brings me to my next discussion about Hebrew.  So here I am,  feeling way more confident about Hebrew than I was a few months ago.  I ask questions if necessary,  but often pray that no one will ask me questions.  So I needed to gas today,  which I hate doing.  It's always crowded and I always choose a bad line.   But the alternative was breaking down on the way to Taekwondo.  So I brave the gas station,  and accidentally pull into the full service lane.  I think to myself,  okay,  this is fine.  Because then I don't have to remember which buttons to push or omg what is my license plate # etc...  Except seriously,  the guy asks me questions that I'm not prepared to answer.  At my confusion,  he switched to English.  Crisis averted and car filled with $100 of gasoline.  Because gas is expensive here. Ugh,  way to knock me down a peg nice gas guy.

In other news.  Some of my children have entered into the sunset photo contest that hubby and I are having.  The following are a few submissions.

Aliyah, Politics and Food...

Welcome back.  Let's see,  what has been happening in the adventure show that is my life? Well,  I promised to discuss food in Israel and I will get to that.

But first,  this.

1999

Now,  as you know  we had planned to make aliyah back in 2002. It took us 14 extra years to actually get here.

So I am not one to say that aliyah is easy.  However,  it is easier than you think.  Yes,  we miss our family and friends in America.  But in this day and age we have Internet,  Skype,  FaceTime,  WhatsApp,  etc....  You can stay in touch fairly easily.

It isn't the same as when I hosted every event at my house and the family all came over.  But you don't feel as out of touch.  It isn't like the days of when I came to Israel for the year and 35 of us shared one pay phone.  And four people had a name similar to mine (yes,  three of them were boys,  but let's not begin the discussion about how I have a boy's name).  I actually enjoyed sharing the one phone.  Our parents had no idea what we were doing.  Really,  we were good mom and dad, don't worry.

Politics :
I am not political.  For real.  I know some people hate when someone says that,  but I just try and stay out of it.  Unless you are my favorite Knesset member,  Sofa Landver.   Or unless you are the mayor of my city, who my friends think I am stalking. But it's just a healthy appreciation for others who are working to make my town a great place.  Okay,  and he is quite charismatic.

So I am watching what is going on in America from afar.  I don't have television and I try and read articles as I can but it isn't the same.  But what I really see are tons of people,  specifically Jews,  because they are the majority of my Facebook friends,  and they are scared of what antisemitism is coming to America.  And what will happen.  This is the time people.  At least consider aliyah.  You have the right to be a citizen here.  Sure it isn't perfect,  but I'm happier than I've ever been.  And things happen here that wouldn't or couldn't happen anywhere else.

Example :

I have semi mastered online grocery shopping here.  Sure, sometimes I order two kilo of peppers because I think it's pounds  and then I eat peppers with every meal for a week.  Or once I was trying to order fish sticks and Google translate told me it was frozen fried Princess fish.  But those blips aside,  it's fabulous.

Anyway,  this past week, we had groceries delivered.  Normally  the delivery guys will being it to my kitchen for me.  But this time the hubby was home and greeted them at the door.  The delivery guy offered to bring it up and hubby said no,  but they asked again.  So he said  no,  don't worry  I have a lot of children,  they can do it.  And I heard the delivery guy say,  oh,  lots of children,  Baruch Hashem (Thank Gd).  Now,  I don't have a lot of kids, but in America it was considered a lot of kids.  Here,  I just have a normal family size.  And everyone seems to love kids.  I wonder if I could have fit on an Israeli sidewalk with my triple wide stroller.  Hmmmm.  Also,  how often does your grocery delivery guy say stuff like that.

Kosher Food l everywhere.  Like literally wherever you go.

And that brings me to food.  Okay,  it's possible that I've become a bit obsessed with taking pictures of my breakfast and of my vegetables.  And I can't quite figure out why.  I think part of it is the novelty of the kosher breakfast,  part of it is that I'm proud when I cook anything on my one burner stove top and part of it is that the food is just freaking good here.

I'm obsessed with breakfast.  And the fact that hubby and I are both free on Fridays.  So we try and go out to breakfast as often as we can,  alone!!!  Except the kids got wind of the fun we were having and they want to come and spend time with us.  Ummmm,  kids,  I'm with you all of the time.  Remember when I homeschooled you for two years and we spent literally every second together.  Or when I couldn't afford daycare for the gang and so I stayed home with you for years.  And then I started teaching preschool and one of you was in my class???  Remember???  We are always together.  But fine.  So far we've taken 3/4 kids by themselves to breakfast with us.  One more to go.  And then, sorry kids, but the adults will be splurging on breakfast alone on Fridays.

Vegetables:
They are bright and they are delicious and they arrive kind-of dirty so they are probably healthier.  Also I can't eat cauliflower anymore here after the incident of the blue caterpillar infestation.  And some vegetables don't exist (where are you parsnips)  or are expensive (broccoli)  so basically we (minus two kids who hate vegetables)  eat loads of tomatoes (except the husband who hates those) ,  cucumbers,  peppers,  onions and zucchini.  Seriously,  I've had more zucchini in the past six months than I've had in the rest of my life.  It's cheap and delicious and dirty.  Mmmmm.

Eggs:
Okay,  I'm just going to go with the assumption that my eggs basically go from hen house to my refrigerator in about fifteen minutes.  Because otherwise,  I wouldn't be able to deal with the fact that my eggs are almost always dirty and often have feathers stuck to them.  So now,  I've become a person that cleans eggs before I use them.  New normal!

Cafe Hafuch,  aka Lattes :
No complaints here.  I drink two every Friday at our breakfasts and make them at my house a few times per week.  If I were employed I might even buy them daily.  But alas,  I'm not employed yet, so I settle for one a week.  Trust me,  they are delicious.  Israelis are very serious about their coffee.  My favorite part is when they make designs in the foam.  I take pictures of them weekly if possible.

In conclusion.  I'm not political.  But if I were,  I'd tell you to get your passport,  and be aware of what is going on.  Also,  if you've ever considered aliyah,  keep considering it.  It took us a long time to get here but better late than never.  If you like food or at least staring at food and photographing it, then come and visit.  Or move here.  I'll take you out for a latte.

I'll end this with a photo of what my youngest child was doing last week.  He had a friend over for a few hours and they disappeared for two hours.  They returned home with this creation.   Apparently they used a knot called a keshermot (or something like that) that he learned in Israeli scouts.  Proud!!!

Spying on your kids can pay off

Since my last posting,  nothing too earth shattering has occurred.  So that's the good news.  And in more good news,  I got the chance to go back to Jerusalem again.  A college friend was celebrating her son's bar mitzvah at the Kotel (Western Wall).  And since I live here now,  I decided to try and go.  And here in the land of miracles   it turned out that their son has a good friend who lives here and I was able to hitch a ride both ways.  Miracle,  because I was not too excited to ride the bus and no way am I driving into the old city.  No thank you very much.   The bar mitzvah was lovely and it was great to see an old friend (except neither one of us is old). And look,  I don't want to brag and make you all jealous.  But while at the kotel,  a bird left me some good luck on my jacket and head.  The land of miracles just keeps churning them out!

Since school is a recurring theme here (for everyone but the husband)  lets talk about school.  The little guy has been in an ulpan that our town runs,  for new olim children in elementary school.  So since September he has been in a class with kids of different ages,  all new olim from several different countries.  He has kids from France,  Sweden,  South Africa,  Australia,  America and I think New Zealand.  Well,  that ulpan is about to end.  And we have to choose a new school for him.  I alluded to this in my last blog.

Anyway,  we chose a school and signed him up.  But I don't think I mentioned a key piece of information.  When we took him to visit the school he had exactly one question.  Would you like to guess what it is??  Maybe think back to my old blog posting about back to school night at my kids high schools.  That's right.  He asked about the lockers. Yep, that's the only thing  he was curious about.  He has become Israeli.

But okay,  now I need to share with you the sweetest thing that happened.  Sorry if this embarrasses my kid.  Two nights before he started his new school,  the teacher called us to welcome us and to tell us what he needs to bring to school.  Then the day before he started,  he gets a phone call from a few boys that are in his new class.  They wanted to introduce themselves and meet him.

So,  the boys come over and give my child a little present with the sweetest note.  And they invited him to play soccer.  They all head to a park until dark.  After it gets dark  they all come back to my house and play a board game.  And as I'm  listening (spying)  from afar (the kitchen which was as close as I could get without joining their game)  I discover that none of them are English speakers.  That's right!  Finally finally I got to hear my youngest child speak in Hebrew.  I've been waiting!  PS he can speak Hebrew.  Just waiting for the accent to come in.

Fast forward to the next day.  Hubby walked him to the new school and took him into the classroom. (I might have been sleeping late)  He saw his new friends and apparently seemed happy.  And while that is the best part,  I have to share with you another best part.  His classroom had a sign on the door that they made for him and for the other new oleh starting that day.  They made the welcome sign in Hebrew for everyone,  in English for my child and in French for the new French speaking student.  Thank goodness I wasn't the one taking him to school because I definitely would have cried.  So special that they took the time to do that for the boys.  I'm hoping the new school goes as well for him as I hope it will.

We finished off the weekend with dinner at another neighbor's house (still love my neighborhood), and where we learned that Krembo has its own song,   the restarting of the parliament outside on shabbat and then NJ friends coming over after shabbat for a pizza gathering.  Busy times!

All in all,  a great week.  Oh,  and have I mentioned that the sky is beautiful here basically every single day?  The hubby and I have WhatsApp wars on who sends the best sky photo each day.  Except he has an amazing view from his office  and I'm  basically hanging out of my bedroom window taking pics.  At least we aren't competitive!

Reality.... And then my comical life

I guess I will start this one off with a topic I've been avoiding : Sad things

In the past few weeks I have been to the shiva house for two different people who both passed away way too young.  I try not to talk about these things because I generally try to be upbeat and optimistic,  but truthfully I've been thinking about it a lot.

And then there was the horrific terror attack with a truck just driving over a group of soldiers.  Just awful.

People have asked me if I'm scared.  I'm not scared.  I'm angry and sad when I think about that.  Just a senseless loss of life,  and for what? Listen.  Us Jews have been through a lot.  You aren't going to get rid of us.
——----———
And now  Happy Things!!!

I must begin with my coffee.  I generally make my own coffee at home because you might recall,  we received a "free"  fancy coffee maker for spending zillions of shekels on appliances.  But some of my ulpan friends and I met for coffee to "study"  and once again I'm obsessed with Israelis and their coffee obsession.  Plus,  one guy in my group bought us coffee,  so really it's even better!

Okay.  Back to my regular strange life.  Chanukah has been over for a while,  which means my kids packages from grandparents finally arrived.  Because the word snail mail doesn't even begin to describe the Israeli postal system.  It's more like amoeba mail.

Then we bought some new fancy furniture made of plastic.  A closet for our outdoor laundry room. If you need to know the weather,  just go outside and do some laundry.  For reals.  Today one kid did their laundry before school and then reported to the other which jacket they should wear to school today.  And then we got the smallest kid to help carry it because he was the only one home.

In exchange for this,  he moved into the box for three days.  That's right.  He put a blanket in it and spent every afternoon reading books inside of the box.  I couldn't find him after school one day and I called out,  where are you?  And I hear,  "I'm in my box." You might find this odd but this is perfectly normal in this house.

On January 1st,  Israel passed a law that all large chain grocery stores no longer provide free bags.  You need to either bring your own or pay.  So we received a few from the store with a cute little Hebrew rhyme on it.  I'm a sucker for a rhyme so of course I snapped a photo.

Then,  I had my ulpan oral exam.  I think I mentioned that I'm sitting for the exam that is a level above the class I am in.  Don't even ask  it's a long story.  But anyway,  lucky me went first for the exam.  And good news.  I passed the oral exam.  Now we wait for the written exam.  Eek!

Did our usual Friday breakfast out but took a different kid this time.  I think he was mainly in it for the hot chocolate because he wouldn't tell us much info.  Then we took him to visit a possible new school (his ulpan finishes shortly).  We liked the new school and signed him up.  Hopefully that will all go well.

Fast forward to one child attending yet another bat mitzvah,  kids cooking for some scout event,  and me obsessing over Israeli vegetables (they are kind of amazing!)

And finally,  attended parent teacher conferences for three of my kids.  That's seriously a lot of Hebrew.  Every teacher starts slowly and then just speeds up their Hebrew.  But I think I  got the main points.  I hope so.  Amazing how much ulpan helps.

In conclusion :
#1  Still trying to be optimistic
#2  Boxes are still good toys and homes
#3 Thank goodness my kids can cook so I'm  not stuck making cookies for their events at the last minute
#4 They can cook because I taught them Home Ec fairly intensively for the past two years
#5 Parent teacher conferences are basically the same everywhere
#6 Except I couldn't get Google docs to work in Hebrew so I had to sign up for conferences in English.  Hello new olim,  way to stand out
#7 Israeli food is the best,  planning to write a blog on that
#8 Sometimes after dealing with your day and a house full of teenagers you need a little snack
#9 I call this snack "OMG thank goodness I can easily buy kosher liquor here because I just finished this bottle.
#10 L'Chaim  לחיים

Chanukah part 3 and beyond

Finally  we have almost reached the end of chanukah.

Thursday of chanukah was a relaxing day.  I mean,  the laundry and dishes still need to be done.  But then Thursday night,  we (the adults)  attended our first wedding in Israel.  We carpooled with some camp friends (I say this as though we are fifteen,  but we are  actually all adults now!)  The wedding was beautiful, but so different than an American wedding.  In Israel,  everyone gathers around the chuppah in a scrum of sorts,  and then suddenly,  people start walking down the aisle and you just kind of part and make an aisle.  And it was outdoors in December.  A bit cold but a  beautiful setting.  It was so nice to be included in the Simcha of friends.  Definitely fun.

Friday we had a chanukah baseball game tournament.  The three younger kids play baseball here.  And FYI,  baseball in Israel doesn't help your Hebrew because mostly Americans play.  But anyway.  I finally got to see the kids play.  My girls are the only girls on their team and I was happy to see that the boys seem to treat them as equals.

Those are my people at 1st, 2nd and center 

So we drop them off and I go in search of coffee (of course).  Except the game was in a town near us that I had never been to.  After a fruitless search,  I call friends that live there (same ones we went to the wedding with)  to ask where to buy coffee.  She said instead to just come over and she would make us coffee.  She actually made us coffee and served us cake.  And she had bathrooms.  Bonus!!!!!

Okay,  on to shabbat.  Finally  we had dinner at my ulpan bestie's house.  We have been trying to get together for a while.  The boys went and davened (prayed)  at ancient Maccabi ruins.  Right?  That's not something you can do anywhere but here.  We had a lovely dinner with my friend and her family and her guests.

Before we went I reminded my kids to be friendly.  Sometimes at meals with people they don't know,  they either sit silently,  or they stand behind my chair and only talk to me.  I'm not a fan of either of those options.  Well,  I think maybe my youngest took my talk to heart a bit too much.  He seriously spoke to her guests for hours.  I couldn't make him stop.  It was like a one man show,  if that one man were 4.5 ft tall and had too much caffeine.  Oh boy.

And finally, the last night of chanukah won't disappoint you.  First we lit candles with the kids.  Not easy to get a good picture but I always try.

Then onto the adult fun.  Our neighbors apparently get together for an adult only chanukah party.  This year it was on the last night of chanukah.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  So I cooked the food I was asked to bring,  and went over.  Turns out that they play a trivia game.  You might remember that we also played a trivia game when we all went away together for shabbat.  That one was in Hebrew and by the time I understood the question,  I was way too late to answer.  But this time... The game was in English.  Yes,  the organizer was translating everything into Hebrew.  But hello.  Finally something in my language.  We started off pretty weak (okay fine,  I didn't recognize Donna Summer because I thought she was white!!)  but in the end,  these Americans won.  What did we win?????  Bragging rights and redemption.  Muuuuwahahhh!!
Oh yeah.  And we had fun with our friends.

On Monday everyone finally went back to school.  And I returned to ulpan.  We are preparing for our oral exam so I am super nervous.  Think good thoughts tomorrow because I'm the last one on the schedule to take the exam.

Tuesday there was a school strike.  So this is new to us (although not the first strike since we've been here).  So Leor stayed home while everyone went to school. (different unions)  At 8:45 am I found out via Facebook that his school would open at 9am. Ummm,  okay.  Good notice!  So I called him from ulpan and said,  get your bus pass because school is opening now!  He wasn't that thrilled.

Also on Tuesday in ulpan,  (when I  wasn't trolling Facebook for info on the strike) we went over our answers to some of the possible exam questions.  Such as  tell me about yourself in ten sentences or more?  What do you plan to do after ulpan?  Why did you move  here? Etc..  So I'm half listening to the answers of my classmates because I've heard it all before.  I think the teacher could tell that we were lethargic because she said that after our break,  she was going to be harder on us,  like the KGB.  Ummm,  okay then.  FYI,  KGB in Hebrew sounds really funny.

Okay.  I shall end this with a funny story half from ulpan and half from home.  Towards the end of the day yesterday we read a story about the history of Krembo.  Krembo is an Israeli snack food.  Or actually  it came from Denmark 200 years ago and made it to Israel 40 years ago.  That's right.  I'm now in the know about the history of Krembo.  It's like a cult food here. So we read the story and my teacher surprises us with Krembo to eat.  Except I hate Krembo so I saved mine for my wonderful hubby who still eats like a teenager.  

Then at dinner last night,  I read the story (in Hebrew of course)  to the family.  I stopped a few times to make sure they understood it.  Because one child speaks Hebrew constantly and three children have never uttered Hebrew in my presence aside from a word here and there.  So I don't know what they know.  Anyway,  then I get to the part of the story where it gives statistics on how people eat their Krembo.  When I read the line,  and x% eat their Krembo by putting it all into their mouth in one bite,  all of my kids started cracking up.

So there you have it.  They understand Hebrew.  That is my proof!!  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Chanukah part 2, out and about (or, oot and aboot)

Okay,  so when I left off  we had completed one rainy day of vacation.  So now day #2 of vacation was even rainier.  But we decided to head to the Canada Centre which is an indoor ice skating rink.  My kids have been begging to go skating since we got here.  But living in a desert doesn't afford many opportunities for ice skating.

Anyway,  we begin the day by eating.  Because we can,  because there are so many kosher places to eat in Israel,  even way up north.  Basically,  the kids had their best breakfast ever.  Hot chocolate made from real chocolate,  and covered in whipped cream and colorful marshmallows.  And because Aroma gives you chocolate with every drink,  they also got a piece of gelt.  That's right.  Because it's Israel,  the chocolates are seasonal.  I love this!

Okay,  so we head to the Canada Centre,  drag out our bags of ice skating gear because of course we brought ice skates.  And trek through the rain to the entrance and can barely get in the door, because it's raining and everyone up north has decided to come.  My girls actually ran into a school friend who was there with her extended family,  aka two buses of people.  Oh boy!

Anyway,  we get in and it actually wasnt so crowded inside.  I think everyone just arrived at the same time.  To keep it short,  the kids went skating,  played ping pong and pool,  saw a 7D movie,  and did this race car game thing.  We didn't know that  you needed towels for the pool or reservations for bowling so we had to skip those.  (note to self.  When the check in guy starts talking really quickly  maybe ask a few questions)  But overall,  the kids had fun,  I was freezing,  and no one broke a bone.  Success!

So now it's dark and we decide to leave and try and do a glass workshop in tzfat.  But I have a genius idea first to take the kids to see the Good Fence.  You know,  the fence on the  border of Israel and Lebanon by Metullah where you can stand and take pics standing between the two flags????  Jon has never heard of this and I've been there at least four times.  We saw a sign  so we drove off to find it.

Note to everyone.  This is where Google would be your friend.  Because the first thing I said to myself was, "Hmmm,  I wonder if it still exists because Israel and Lebanon don't exactly have a great relationship these days."   People,  listen to your inner voice!  But no,  I  find the location on Google maps and we start driving.  We are inching along the border in the dark but we can't find it.  We loop around a few times and nothing.  So finally I Google and well, it closed down in 2000. So okay then. We didn't go and see it.  Oops!
Here is a map of our meandering drive.

Here I am at the good fence in 1995

Off to dinner in tzfat.  We go to this little dairy restaurant that was recommended and the food is delicious.  Everyone was happy and fed.  We were trying to do a glass workshop in tzfat but it was too late at night for us,  so that will wait until next time.  We headed back to our bed and breakfast place.
Finally,  day #3 has sunshine!!  We get up early and check out so we can finally  do something outdoors.  Jon has been wanting to see eagles,  so we head to  a nature reserve.  It's chanukah so we figure things will be crowded.  Let's just say,  we had plenty of space to nature watch.

At first we saw nothing and we were about to call it a day.  But then suddenly we spot a few eagles and then a group of ten of them.  Totally a worthwhile trip!  And since we are Israeli now, we have a national parks card so we can go to any of the many parks for free (well,  included,  not free but whatever).  We just flash our cool membership card.


Next stop,  DeKarina chocolate workshop.  We saw a movie and had a tour of the factory which was really cool.  The factory is actually tiny.  Then  we got to do a little workshop.  To be honest,  the workshop was kind of boring and too short.  But at least we got to taste the chocolate!  Everyone did come home with the chocolates they made so I didn't feel the need to purchase any.  My favorite chocolate (from looking at it,  I didn't taste it) was the Mt. Hermon chocolate.  It's a snow capped mountain of chocolate!

When that activity ended,  we started the long trek home.  Fed the kids doritos (also kosher here!)  and granola bars for lunch.  Because we are the best parents ever!!! (and we didn't want to stop).  We arrive home in Modiin for fifteen minutes just to unload the car and get winter coats.  And,  back in the car kids (I told you that this was like National Lampoons vacation) off to Jerusalem.

Okay,  so yes,  it is true.  Since we made aliyah in August we haven't taken our kids to Jerusalem yet.  Maybe that makes us terrible parents (add it to the list kids)  but the time has just gotten away from us.  First we didn't have a car,  then we didn't have a license,  and then life just got busy.  At least the boys went with their schools.

So we are  trying to see the candle lighting at the kotel and then the candle lighting at Mamilla.  Being the special people that we are,  we missed both.  First,  we enter the old city through the Jaffe gate as usual.  But then we started following people and suddenly we are on the longest route to the kotel ever.  Complete with cars driving making us smoosh up against the walls.  The old city isn't exactly designed for cars,  yet cars drive through it.

We make it through the long security line at the kotel,  visit the kotel,  look at the already lit chanukiah and then start to head back to Mamilla to catch that lighting.  There is no way I'm taking the long way back.  So we decide to hike it through the Arab shuk /market which is the most direct path.   One child was refusing to go that way but really had no choice.  Anyway,  it was fine.  And 144 steps later  we were back out at the Jaffa gate.

And finally,  I got to see what I've been waiting to see.  The light show on the old city walls.  I saw a video of this last year on a friend's Facebook page and ever since I've been waiting.  It was as cool as I had imagined.  I mean,  think about it.  A modern light show on the ancient city walls.  Pretty amazing.  I was definitely more into it than the kids,  but they indulged me.  We finally ended the day with some takeout back home in Modiin because Mamilla was way too mobbed to attempt to eat.  Overall,  a great vacation!

This has been a really long blog post so I  guess I will need a chanukah part 3! But I will leave you with this.
#1 chanukah is awesome here
#2 still haven't seen a Xmas tree
#3 I wish I could live in the north
#4 but I still love Modiin
#5 my kids and I have way different versions of a fancy place to stay
#6 the amount of food you can eat here is scary and delicious and hasn't lost the wow factor yet
#7 don't go searching for the Good Fence