My 2006 Succos Trip to Israel -- Part 1

Where to begin?

With the El Al security guard who asked if I spoke Hebrew? When I responded "I know how to ask for coffee and a ladies' room, but not much more," pronouncing the two words, if badly. He grinned and came right back with "Well, you drink one and then go to the other." A security guard with a sense of humor. Wow!

The flight was full as usual, and also as usual my bags, loaded for bear and grandkids, were among the last to pop up, but finally I made my way out into the early morning to find Howie and the small boys in the van, and it was off to Jerusalem.

Settling in was very easy – the couple across the hall from the Tavins often go to America for Succos, and I move in to a lovely apartment. Unpacking and spending a few minutes took most of the morning, and after a quick round of hugs and kisses and more hugs and kisses with all the grandkids, it was off to get Shoshana her engagement present.

Back in the dark ages, before color television, as my grandkids say, a friend of my mother's bought me my pots as a present. The best part of the gift was lunch with her and her advice, letting me choose what I liked but steering me away from those then-fashionable copper bottoms (I'd never have kept them clean) and advising me to get things I wouldn't have thought of (that heavy cast iron skillet). I still have almost all of those pots! I've cherished the memory of that day all these years, and decided that would make a great engagement present for my granddaughter, the first of my grands to marry.

Luckily, a new housewares-and-gift store had just opened a short bus ride away, and we spent hours selecting pots, debating over size (I believe in large pots, which cut down the stove spatter if you cook in the bottom few inches and are available for the big stuff, too), and wandering with glee through the gadgets. I'm a gadget addict, and I fear I've lured Shoshana into the obsession, too. Yet another store for a few more gadgets (one can never have enough, right?), and then the jet lag started to kick in, so it was home to dinner and a relatively early bed.

The next day was Friday, always a flurry of cooking and cleaning, and I quickly dropped into my accustomed role as laundry folder, , a task easy to accomplish while amusing small children. As usual when I'm near the kitchen pre-holiday, I chop and fry mounds and mounds of onions, ready to add to various dishes all week long.

Friday night we had the first of many meals in the Tavin Succah, or should I say one of them. The major Succah covers the entranceway to their house, and with the board walls up and decorated and the bamboo roof, open to starlight in places, more or less firmly in place, it made an elegant dining room, if a rather crowded one. Howie's designed it to perfection, with a door that latches and even its own little sink, rigged up to the garden hose. Cold water only! At night, the table comes down, the mattresses come out, and the smaller boys have a bedroom in the Succah.

Yosef's room, formerly a sort of porch, has a roof that slides out and can be replaced with the bamboo rods they use as Succah roofs. That became an auxiliary Succah, where the older boys slept. During the day, the younger ones used it as a snack center, since it was closer to the kitchen.

Outside, but close by, was yet a third Succah which Howie had gotten by a complicated series of events. It was quite small, really just a square tent with a bamboo roof, but was very useful as a bedroom Succah for Sharon and Howie.