A Super Special Shabbat Saturday

 

 I love our Jewish community and the synagogue we are members of.  When the kids are in 3rd grade they are given their Siddurs (prayer books) they will use for many years to come.   Our congregation makes this into an event.  Last Sunday, the 3rd graders decorated their prayer book covers.  This past Saturday, there was a special Shabbat service everyone was invited to when they handed each child their Siddur and recited a blessing. It was wonderful.  And, it was killing me that I couldn't take pictures.  You are not allowed to in the synagogue on Shabbat.  Oy!  I did get a few pictures outside of Ian holding his newly issued prayer book.

We were very fortunate to have Jeff's mom join us for services. Thank you so much for coming!!  Afterwards we let Ian pick the restaurant he wanted to go to for lunch.  Bejing Tokyo was his #1 choice.  It was a delightful morning and I was very touched (and teared up!) when they called Ian's name to go up to the Bimah (stage type setting in the sanctuary).  Can you imagine the mess I am going to be when Ian gets Bar Mitzvahed!?!?!

Ian is in a class with 31 kids.  This is a BIG class.  These are the kids he will be studying with for the next several years.  It is going to be so neat to see these kids grow over the years.  And it will be a heckuva year for attending Bar and Bat Mitzvahs!

The religious school director took pictures of each of the kids and put it inside the front cover of their books with a special name plate.  I love this idea!

I always say to Jeff that we could move to any city he wants (should a great job opportunity come along) and I would have no problems making us new friends and getting acclimated to a new location.  However, I need to rethink my generalization and say that I would have a hard time leaving these families we've become close to and this synagogue we are becoming very integrated in.  It's this kind of stuff that isn't easy to find wherever you go.

Having Grandma with us made it even sweeter!

Ian's cover he decorated himself.  The Hebrew letters spells his name, Simcha (means joy, happiness)