Yesterday I really felt such a strong sense of Purim literally being in the air in the way that is unique to Israel!

The kids all had Purim fairs/parties at school, and dressed in costume before they left.  (I wasn’t sure how this was all going to come together, but the night before the three girls all figured out how to use what they had and came up with great costumes, and I found a way to make suitable headgear for ds9, Moshe (Moses) the shepherd.)

The middle kids and up all had to prepare individual mishloach manos for a classmate – I would have welcomed some advance notice on this because I don’t love having to take care of things like this at the last minute.  But we got a notice that afternoon that they needed to bring something the next day, so dd15 went to the mall with dd11 and ds9, and got stuff for them.  Very nice for me to have older kids and for the middles, very nice to have older siblings! They came home and said the place was hopping with all of their classmates, almost none of whom they ever see there; everyone else was out shopping for the same thing!

When the kids came home the next day from their parties, they were all holding  the mishloach manos they had received, party treats, etc and shared about all the fun Purim activities they had that day.  When I looked outside I saw the sidewalks filled with children of all ages in costume, music was blaring nearby as part of a pre-Purim carnival (dd15 went with a couple of younger siblings to check it out but unfortunately returned quickly when she saw it wasn’t exactly appropriate), the sun was shining and the sky was that gorgeous Mediteranean blue, the buses were backed up in traffic to let all of the kids celebrating go by….just beautiful!

I hoped to go shopping for supplies for our mishloach manos that afternoon (Tuesday), but by the time 4 pm arrived, decided I’d be facing the crowds and I’d be better off doing it the next morning when I had more energy.  Today all the kids except ds13 were off of school (though he stayed home because he wasn’t feeling well), so dd15 and dd11 accompanied me on my errands.  That’s something that used to happen all the time but this was the first time since we moved that they both came with me; it was actually dd11’s first time going shopping with me at all!

I was pleasantly surprised to see that none of the stores were packed – maybe it was just the last minute people like me who were shopping this morning?  Or maybe I got lucky and happened to hit a lull in the shopping?  Whatever it was, I was grateful since it made the experience much more pleasant.

I had a plan for what I wanted to send for mishloach manos (challah rolls and tomato dip), but then couldn’t find containers for the dip, so I had to readjust on the spot when all I found was bigger containers – so I’ll send a salad instead.  You can only work with what you have!

Dh took ds2 and ds4 to shul for the megillah (Book of Esther) reading tonight, while I stayed home with ds5 who was sick and listened to a Torah lecture online about Purim.  I listened to a different lecture last night, and yet another one a couple of weeks ago at our monthly women’s gathering.  I find listening to lectures a helpful tool to go into the holiday feeling spiritually prepared – I really encourage everyone to take time to get some insight on the deeper meaning of the day since it’s too easy to get caught up in the extreme busyness and physicality of Purim.  I toyed with the idea of posting some thoughts that I found inspiring but unfortunately I won’t have time to write it up in time for anyone to benefit on Purim itself!  Meanwhile, the other kids when to a different  reading.  Then while I went to a later megillah reading, dd15 made a big batch of challah dough and dd17 made yet another batch of hamantaschen.

It’s almost midnight now but we’re waiting for the challah rolls to finish baking before going to sleep.  Ds13, dd11, and dd15 are all staying up as well, so I have lots of good company!

Avivah