Holiday Musings and Thanksgiving in Sharon

I get together with my family a couple of times of year, this last year it was Passover, 4th of July, Rosh Hashanah and now Thanksgiving ... and we will be getting together for Winterfest - a name of my own devising, it will be something like a combination of late Hanukkah and winter birthdays. During each of these holidays, we all stay together under one roof, be it in Cherry Hill, NJ, Sharon, MA or, now that we have a house, Eastchester, NY.

Its nice ... really, really, really nice. I can't say that I ever imagined I would like my family so much that I would want to spend this much time together ... but I gotta say, its pretty great. I mean, I can't say it is all stress free, but I can say that the stress is absolutely worth it.

Especially now that the cousins are all growing up, seeing them all play together is truly a magical thing. Thanksgiving, which we spent at Josh and Debbie's in Sharon, MA, was the first holiday we have been to since Soren was born where it really felt like he was old enough to interact with his cousins. Even though not everyone was there - Rachel, Larry, Dylan, Joey and Eli stayed in Philly and Marley is away at college - Soren had an absolute blast playing with Samara and Tal.

Then when we got back, we took Soren to see the annual train show at the NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx with our friend Jen. Nathan is Soren's best friend and their interaction is so fantastic I do not have the adjectives, but believe me they are awesome together. 

Overall the holiday was great, and it was quieter and less chaotic than other have been, those not with us were definitely missed.

This was also the first holiday in a long time that I forgot my camera, but fortunately iPhones have excellent cameras ... here are a couple of the pictures and videos from Thanksgiving. I would have you all know that other things happened at this holiday aside from Soren playing with his cousins, Aviva and myself ... but frankly adults are so much less interesting to photograph ...

At the amazing childrens museum in Easton 

On a walk with Aviva and I, attempting to appreciate the tiny amount of snow

 With Tal and Samara

 Soren and Tal playing together.

 With his best friend Nathan at the train show at the San Diego Zoo on the Sunday after we got back.

I'm dreaming of a white Pesach ...

I'm dreaming of a white Pesach, just like the ones I've
never known,
Where the schmaltz will glisten, and children listen,
To hear 'bout Moses and Pharoah ...

Yup. We had a White Pesach this year. Massive March snowstorm blew in and dumped around 5" of snow all over Southern New Jersey - you know, this sort of thing used to be rare but now it seems that the late winter storms (and the crazy October storms) are happening every year. I am sure there is a comment about global warming to be made here, but basically the weather is messed up now.

Still, the snow melted away by the next day, and we were all warm and snuggly inside anyway - eating gefilte and brisket and all the other heart-stopping goodness that makes up this holiday. This year was a bit tamer than last year, no lamb on a spit this time (good thing too, given the snow). 

Still, we had a great Shabbat, a family photo shoot with Sara Langdon (same person who shot our wedding, awesome photographer - can't wait to link to those pictures), two lovely Seders and a lot of great family and friend time. And of course, it was Soren's first holiday, so everyone got to gush about him, which was great. Anyway, here are some of the pictures from our Seders this year ...

 Soren is generally a bit skeptical of cameras, and Pesach was no different ...

Soren is a little young for most toys, but as Dylan was showing us, he loves the Winkle ...

 

... loves it so much he wants to eat it!!

 

Soren generally had a great time. 

 

Over the holiday, Soren got quality time with Savta ...

 and Nadav & Laura ...

 .... and Daddy ....

... and Abby ...

... and Rachel, 

with Nitsa ...

 ... and Yair ...

... and his adorable cousins, and of course, he spent lots of time with Mommy. 

And of course Soren was not the only adorable child there, because all of this wonderful, ultra-cute cousins were also running around (actually Soren was not really running around but you know what I mean) the whole time .... Eli got to spend time with Aunt I (who both he and Soren cannot get enough of) ...

 ... and he got to work on his chewing.

Joey got to work on her sass, and of course ...

she spent much of the evening pantsless.

 Dylan and Samara got buggy ...

... especially Dylan. 

Samara practiced being incredibly cute ...

... while Tal just chilled, because thats what Tal does. 

The Seders themselves were pretty mellow, not so many people, mostly family and close friends ...

... and delicious food, I mean the brisket is really a guest in and of itself.

We had a great time during the Seders, and even though he was asleep, Soren was there in spirit.

 

The plagues (and Tanyas bag of plague toys) were a big hit, as always ...

And, despite the busy-ness of the holiday, Tanya got a ton of help this year ... so she got a lot of time to play with the kids, hang out and just relax.

Thanksgiving 2012

So this year for thanksgiving we were back in Cherry Hill with the Buchmans, for another relatively raucous and certainly enjoyable holiday. Being that Aviva was 8.5 months pregnant, we drove down on Tuesday night to avoid the traffic, and amazingly we only had to stop once. The holiday was, as always, a bit chaotic but full of smiles, nachas and good food. On the Wednesday, Aviva and I both got new iPhone 5s, which has completely changed my life as my previous phone was a "dumb" phone, only good for phone calls. Having a computer that you can talk to in your pocket is totally amazing, and although it sounds ridiculous I will say the iPhone is changing my life (Dave wins this  round). 

This year has had some big ups - Rachel & Larry had a new baby, Josh got a new job, Aviva got licensed as a therapist, Aviva and I will have a baby very soon ... and also some really hard stuff, Debbie's mother passed away in January and Larry's brother-in-law Kevin passed away just a few weeks ago. They are both remembered often and with great affection. During dinner, and throughout the day, I think that we all thought of all the great and hard things that happened,  remembered the people we lost and I think we were all very grateful for each others presence and the love we all share - I for one think we have a pretty good thing going here and am thankful that all the people in the pictures below have become such an integral and important part of my life.

This year Na'amah helped me take pictures (and did a wonderful job), which was awesome because I am even in a few :) 

Aviva adores beets ... even those the size of small rats that end up as beet salad. 

 

So yeah, I am pregnant ... Whats it to yah?

But when Baby G comes out Eli will be waiting to play with him ...

Fourth (or fifth?) rendition of the famous blah, blah, blah hymn by Dylan and that old dude ...

 Typical holiday chaos

Marley is growing up really fast

 Geri was not around this holiday, but aprons her aunt made for all the ladies inspired a number of great photos and bizarre antics ...

 

Extraordinarily rare footage of Tanya relaxing after another well-executed holiday. 

Late night jam session after the meal courtesy of Josh and Larry ... most welcome by everyone, hopefully it becomes a holiday tradition ...

 

  

 

 

 The most interesting man in the world

Samara made desert

 As always, there was wonderful food ...

 

... and good wine. 

To be honest, I am not sure what is happening here ...

.. but I know Joey loved it.

 A loving family is something to be thankful for