holidays | The Angel Forever

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Sukkot Celebrations

Posted on October 13, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As I write this, we will be getting ready to celebrate Sukkot. Sukkot begins Wednesday night at sundown and continues to Friday night at sundown. Yes, there are more holidays in the fall than just Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This is a very busy time of year and can leave your head spinning.

Growing up, I remember some of the Jewish celebrations at nursery school and beyond. As an adult, I recall my aunt and uncle building a sukkah in their yard and going to their house for a party with other family and friends. This photo was taken in their sukkah in the fall of 2001.

Sukkah decorations post Sept 11, 2001

Now, I watch as my boys learn about the different holidays at home, in school. and Hebrew School. We create our own memories and continue with traditions that have been passed along from generation to generation.

JSL’s class has been working very hard to create decorations for their school. Check out the fantastic Sukkot display that they made with all of the other classes:

The little guy even agreed to jump into a photo to point to the item that he made within the display.

JSL was able to select from several different items to decorate. He listened to the list the other day and immediately wanted to make a shofar. This is a closer view of his masterpiece.

Wishing everyone who celebrates a festive Sukkot. May you enjoy spending time with family and friends in your sukkah and being one with nature.

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family holidays jsl looking back school

Rosh Hashanah 5772 Celebrations

Posted on October 2, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

At nursery school, JSL has been creating a lot of items especially for Rosh Hashanah. The class has a display in their room of shofars that each of the kids made. I can not recall which of the ones was his. My guess is that it was one of the predominantly blue ones.

The kids got to see a shofar up close and even heard the rabbi practice the blasts before the holiday. Earlier in the week, a bee keeper came in to visit the classes. At the end of the day, the kids were allowed to take a piece of bees wax home with them.

As we walked out of the building, I noticed that most of the kids had their noses to the wax. Silly me, I had no idea what it was all about. Even JSL got in on the act when we got to the car.

Of course, when we arrived home I had to check it out myself. OMG – it was sweet like honey and smelled amazing. I was most definitely in love with this scent and so were all of the kids.

Since apples and honey are big for the holidays, the kids were making a lot of apple art. JSL arrived early one day and jumped right into his. I have to say, if they had allowed blue, his apple may have been that color.

Wednesday night, we went to celebrate the start of Rosh Hashanah with Nana and Papa. JSL and I picked out some of the apples that we got on his field trip the week before. They were perfect and ready to go with the honey that Nana got from a coworker.

We also had round challah with raisins on the Halloween table cloth (kind of funny no?!) and both of the boys helped to say the blessing.

Now I look forward to seeing how JSL learns about Sukkot and the rest of the holidays this year. He gets so excited and I can not wait to watch as he learns about our traditions.

How do your children embrace your holiday traditions? Feel free to share some of what your family does for any holiday that you celebrate.

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arts and crafts family food glorious food holidays jsl photos school yummy

Happy New Year 5772

Posted on September 29, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As I am off celebrating Rosh Hashanah with my family, I wanted to share the new Rosh Hashanah video from The Maccabeats. The Maccabeat’s Candlelight video went viral last Chanukah and still has people talking about it. Here is Book of Good Life:

Here is another fun video for the holiday. This is Blow Shofar by The Shlomones (aka The What’s Up Band).

Be sure to have some apples and honey to celebrate a Sweet New Year.

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fun holidays Music video

Shannah Tovah with Apples and Honey Song

Posted on September 27, 2011 5:06 pm by TheAngelForever

I am fresh from the SheStreams Conference in NYC only to get home and thrust into the holiday bonanza of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shmini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah. Yes, tis the season for a bounty of holidays. JSL came home from nursery school today with an art project. He made a Rosh Hashanah apple dipping plate. This will be heading to Nana and Papa’s house for dinner tomorrow evening to welcome the sweet new year.

Once we were home, JSL started to race around the living room and wanted to put on a show. Suddenly, I had my video camera in hand to record the little guy singing “Apples & Honey” that he recently learned.

As I learned at SheStreams, a large number of bloggers post raw, unedited video on their websites. That was golden to me. I often hesitated to post video that I made because of this reason. Let’s be honest, kids will be kids and often surprise you with their antics. Of course, this makes the video more real and quite authentic.

Well, JSL did not fail on that. At four, he has a quirky sense of humor and is gaining confidence in his talking and singing. A few short months ago, he never would have agreed to share this song in front of the camera. Check out how he replies to my questions and ends the video.

As I enter the new year, I hope to embark on many new and exciting things. This will include more videos and vlogs in the near future.

To all of those celebrating Rosh Hashanah, I wish you and your family a Happy and Sweet New Year.

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arts and crafts Blogging Conference crafts fun holidays jsl me moments photos school video

Tuesday Tales – It’s Challah Time!

Posted on September 20, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Tuesday Tales

Have you ever had challah? You may not have had it plain, but chances are that you may have been served challah french toast. Here’s a slice of challah that we had while on the road the other day.

Each Friday at nursery school, JSL and his classmates celebrate Shabbat. We bring in money to donate to others, food for the food pantry, and they have a Shabbat table. Last week, JSL’s new class made a new tablecloth to place with each of their handprints and names for this year. In addition to this, a girl and boy are selected to be the Ima (mother) and Abba (father) to help do the Shabbat duties. On the first Friday, JSL was Abba and so thrilled to do this special task. This is what the table looked like last year:

Shabbat is special and thanks to this, we have a book that JSL received last year from Kar Ben Publishing.

It’s Challah Time! uses photos of preschool aged children in a classroom setting. Together, the children (with adult supervision) are making challah for their Shabbat celebration. The easy to follow steps and large clear photos take you along the journey of making a delicious challah of your own. As a child, my favorite part of making challah was getting the chance to braid the dough before it was baked in the oven.

The book also shows the kids participating in traditional Shabbat activities. They read stories together, sing with the Cantor, and set the Shabbat table to get ready for their weekly celebration. Then, they show the challah cover over their special bread, candles, and grape juice. When it is time to light the candles, all of the kids participate together and share the experience.

Celebrating Shabbat is important to keeping our Jewish traditions alive. It’s Challah Time! does a fantastic time of keeping this alive with kids and also shares a recipe at the end so you can make challah making memories at home with your children. I know this is a book that JSL and NHL will both enjoy and remember thanks to the fantastic preschool times they have had in their own classrooms and at home with our family.

Of course, since this is Tuesday Tales, I must ask the usual question. What have you read recently? Please be sure to link up to your Book Posts, and/or leave a comment below. Include something you read on your own, with a child or someone else. Tuesday Tales are all about spreading the love for books.

Disclosure: I received this book complimentary of Kar-Ben Publishing in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own.