I have some fun things I’ve been doing recently – hosting a soap making workshop, attending a foraging workshop to learn about edible plants growing in the wild, learning rudimentary basket weaving – I wanted to share with you about each of these things but didn’t, and here we are almost at Purim!

Ds9 and ds5 returned to school today after ten weeks at home, just in time for the class Purim parties. I’m glad they went back in time to enjoy some of the Purim activities.

I’ve only dressed up twice in the last thirty years, and even then, it was pretty lowkey – once a blue wig with my regular clothes, once a brocade robe with my regular headgear. This year I decided I want to more actively contribute to the fun Purim environment so I’ll be dressing up a bit more. I whipped up a couple of Mexican-style ponchos for my husband and me – I used a bright yellow chenille bedcover that matches the sombrero I bought – I got the bedcover at a second hand shop, and for a half hour of time and a few shekels, we have something fun to wear.

We’ll be attending a large communal meal tonight at a private home after the megilla reading at shul, and I’ll be contributing rolls and green beans for that. I’m also going to be sending challah rolls for our shalach manos, and making some kind of flatbreads for our Purim seuda, so I’ll be doing a lot of bread baking today!

For the Purim meal tomorrow, we’ll be hosting our married daughter and her family, and another young family. I thought of doing a Mexican theme for mishloach manos and the Purim meal, but then decided to stay with something more simple.

Last year Purim was on Friday and there just wasn’t time to deliver to all the people who I had prepared mishloach manos for. This year I hope to make it to everyone on my list. Because I live in a small community, I feel like I should give everyone or give just one or two people. I think of Purim as an opportunity to reach out and connect with others, some of whom I already have a very nice relationship with, and others I’m less frequently in touch with, to let them know they are thought of and cared about. So I try to make a generous number of mishloach manos.

For the Purim seuda, I wanted to serve something that would be special but different than our typical Shabbos fare. I decided to go with a casual theme of Israeli-ish foods:

• zaatar flatbreads
• techina
• chumus
• chopped avocado
• seasoned olives
• pickles
• grilled beef skewers
• cranberry meatballs
• grilled honey mustard chicken cutlets
• french fries
• Israeli salad

Usually for dessert I put out any baked goods we’re given for mishloach manos, so I won’t be preparing anything extra on that front.

What I haven’t yet completely decided on is what to give the teen girls who attended my weekly class for the last year. I’ve recently stopped giving the class and want to send something small to each of them. I’m thinking about some homemade chocolates with a muffin – I have heart shaped chocolate molds and a heart shaped muffin pan, so that could work nicely together. I want something simple and small but nice – it all needs to be done today and I hope that I’ll manage timewise to get all that I want to do, done!

Avivah