The Fall Marathon

Yea, we know...we've been slackers with our postings, or lack of them, to the blog. Brenda and I were talking and agreed that it's like someone took all the possible holidays, festivals and school events and just jammed them into the Fall to see how long they could keep us busy before we collapsed on the floor exhausted. We could skip some but what fun would that be....


The weekend of the September 30th started the marathon. It kicked off on Saturday with the Fall Fest at Sarah's school. It was a great day with warm temps and sunny skies. They had everything from a pie baking competition to pumpkin painting. Everyone had a blast, including the adults!

We left the Fall Fest and went directly to our neighborhood Octoberfest party which featured live music, a bouncy slide and a great atmosphere created by neighbors getting together on a fine fall day. We hung out at the Octoberfest until the sun set and then headed home as the temperatures plummeted-as they do when the sun goes behind the mountains this time of year.


Sunday morning Brenda hung out with the girls while I headed out for a ride with the Men's group from our Temple (Har HaShem) . I was originally thinking that it was going to be some pokey Jewish folks tooling around on some old jalopy bikes, but not the case at all. Believe it or not, Har HaShem has some really good cyclists and we had a great ride in the foothills.

Sunday night was Kol Nidre...it marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. My good friend Michael and his family as well as Joanna and Mark met me at the synagogue for this service. Since the service too late for the girls, Brenda hung out at home with the girls and started preparing for the Break-the-Fast party that we were hosting this year. Sarah, Brenda and I attended Yom Kippur services on Monday. Sarah attended children's services while Brenda and I went to the adult version. During Yom Kippur, Jews over the age of 13 fast from sundown to sundown so as the day wore on we (okay, mostly me) started to miss the fact that I hadn't eaten every hour...much less since the previous day.

After attending evening services, we had a Break-the-Fast party at our house with the Stones and Joanna and Mark. As we cleaned up from the evening we realized that coming up in a few days was the start of Sukkot...another Jewish holiday signifying the fall harvest. We needed to get busy building our Sukkah!!


This was a very busy week with each day spent either working on the Sukkah both in the morning before work and again in the evening after the girls went to bed...headlamps were essential. As this was the first year we were building a Sukkah, the effort was rather significant. By Friday (10/6) we finally finished it just in time, complete with decorations, lights, and everything else to make it feel "homey". Friday night we did our first meal in the Sukkah and the girls loved it. It was a very pleasant evening and we hung out in it well after dark.

But wait...there's more. On Saturday evening two families, the Hainlines and the Seigals, came over and joined us for another great night in the Sukkah. Peggy, our friend and family photographer, joined us for the evening as well. We are positive she will have some great photos for us to share.

The kids all played together and moved between the basement (bouncy castle) and outside all evening. We did havdallah as well as the ceremonial blessing for Sukkot (lulav and etrog). It was really great to have all the kids and friends around to celebrate with us as it's a mitzvah to share time in the Sukkah with others.

On Sunday, we joined our Chavarah in the Hirsh family Sukkah. We just joined this Chavarah and really enjoying this lovely group of new friends. At the end of the evening, all of us were ready for some good sleep!!


This week...We have others friends that will be joining us thru out the week in our Sukkah if the weather cooperates since Sukkot does not end until sundown on Friday.

Next stop...Simchat Torah...more on that next weekend.