The Chag of all Chags

                           Forget the High Holidays. In Israel, the chag of all chags is Purim.

This is our first year celebrating Purim since we made aliyah  and although I had high expectations having been warned by friends and family, I must say Israel really goes all out when it comes to celebrating Purim.

When I lived in Colombia, before kids, before marriage, Halloween was my favorite holiday. In  college, any excuse to have a party and dress up as ridiculous as an adult possibly can, is a good excuse. Then I moved to Miami and met my husband, who came up with this whole explanation about how Halloween is a pagan holiday and as Jews we should not celebrate it. Crazy in love as I was at the time, it all sounded so reasonable coming from him that we made a pact and since that day I never again dressed up for Halloween. Purim in America wasn't the same since kids dressed up, but adults would not get the equivalent celebratory mood that we got on Halloween, so to say the least I felt like I had gotten bamboozled.
One of the reasons I was so excited about moving to Israel was that once again I would be able to dress up for a Holiday and not look out of place.

We've been celebrating Purim for two weeks now. A party for Olim at the Iriya, a Yuval ha Mebubal concert, a Miki concert, Yom Hafuch at school, kids dressing up as something else each day of the week... To top all the craziness off, we decided to go with friends to the crazy Adloyada/Parade in Holon. Holon holds each year what is known as Israel's biggest Purim parade. Being olim chadashim , how could we let the opportunity pass? I mean, these are things you only do on your first year in Israel. And after having been there, I can say it will probably be the last :) We set a time and place to meet with our friends at the main street where the parade traveled through. The plan was scheduled pretty well, until we got there and discovered we needed to park 15 blocks away. We walked, as hundreds of other costume wearers did towards Weizmann St. Once there, we needed to find our friends, except walking among the crowd was a feat.   Thousands of people stood against the barrier that separated the parade form the crowd as my son Nathan sat on my shoulders in order to see the floats go by. What so many people say is nice about Israel is knowing that no matter where you go, everyone is Jewish. That's true, that is something I appreciate as well, but body odors are body odors no matter how Jewish you might be.  Being just two blocks away from our friends, we never found each other and watched the parade (or should I say the top of the floats) from two different corners. This was our first and last, but I am happy we went. I can say we've done it.

Tomorrow the celebrations continue locally as Modiin's parade will take place along a street not far from our house, so no 15 block away parking, just costumes and a good time.

Poster child? Nefesh B Nefesh thought so :)

It's been almost seven months since our Aliyah. It feels like yesterday we were packing our stuff in Miami, yet we've accomplished so much in such a short period of time, and we are so settled and well adjusted, that it feels like we've been here forever.

When we decided to make Aliyah, I was certain we were making the right decision, yet I was full of fear and sure that no matter how great a country Israel might be, there would be challenges along the way in settling in and getting acclimated. I wasn't entirely wrong, I mean moving to a new country, with two kids and a dog, enrolling them in school, learning a new language, getting the paperwork out of the way, meeting new people, keeping in touch with friends and family 7 hours behind schedule, not finding the ingredients you need when baking your favorite cake, shopping for groceries in kilos instead of pounds, driving in kilometers... yes, it's been an adjustment, but it has been a fun adventure and not as traumatic as I thought it might be. We are happy, we are settled and  I can't think of a better place to call home.

Are we the poster child for Nefesh B Nefesh? Well, they seem to think so and we couldn't be more thrilled. About a month ago, I received a call from one of NBN representatives asking if we would be willing to participate in a promotional video that would be featured in their upcoming Mega Aliyah Fair in the US. Willing? I felt honored to be considered. Nefesh B Nefesh has made our Aliyah an amazing experience. They have made every pain in the butt bureaucratic errand easy, they call us to make sure we are ok, they care that our Aliyah is a success, and to be able to do this for them, well that, although not at all comparable to what they have done for us, seemed like the least we could do to repay the amazing job they've done.

So we filmed our interview, and above, we would like to share with you a little bit of what we said...
If you can't see the video above click the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRfbLCZ8Jmc