More Purim Fiesta!!!

If you are just joining my blog, today's post is a continuation from yesterday's post. So go take a gander at Thursday's post and learn all about Purim and its festivities.

The Jewish holidays tend to start at night. I guess we are nocturnal People. Monday night we read the "Book Of Esther" followed by a Purim celebratory meal in the Synagogue for.........oh............roughly 350 people. I think my kids were there, but they may have stepped out for a smoke and a swig and I would be none the wiser. Although, they are 6, 5 and 2 years old, so I gather they were just hanging out with the balloon making clown.

Apparently this is the only picture we actually took at this specific event. I was probably too busy stuffing my face to have any other pictures taken.


The Purim holiday (which starts at Sundown) is a 24 hour holiday. On Tuesday morning, we woke up bright and early even though some of us did not get to bed until 1 am the night before. Of course "WE" refers to inconsiderate adorable children and "US" refers to a tired, snappy very forgiving Mommy.

At some point, Hun took the kids out to deliver our gift packages and I cleaned up the aftermath of that morning's Hurricane.

But another main event in the Purim Arena would be the upcoming HUGE feast that we begin before Sundown Tuesday night.

Some people start this feast early and it falls more into the lunchtime category. My family likes this to be at dinner, and wants the maximum time to cook before we begin this meal. But because this holiday is only 24 hours and officially ends at Sundown, the meal must be started, usually with a blessing on bread, before Sundown. Well this year........some Government officials decided that daylight savings time would come the weekend before Purim. So now we have to start the meal an hour later than usual which is just perfect for kids who have had their sleep schedules completely thrown off since Saturday night and are high on SUGAR.

I am, however, grateful for the fact that my Mom was the one who made the meal and cooked the entire feast. We pretty much just showed up.

My mother had a total of 27 people over. Included in this count, was my Mom's recent Contractor. He and his wife and three kids, who are in fact Jewish, have never celebrated Purim before, so this was a welcome invitation for them.

I will just remind all of you, that until this past December, my parents were living in my home for 16 months while their home was under major construction. Robert Lew, the contractor, also built my deck - which I just love. But people want to know what my Parents were doing to their house that took 16 months - and now I will offer you a glimpse.


I know, I know...I posted this picture yesterday. This is my Mother's new entrance. It was pushed out forward and widened. She has a new front door with sidelight and overhead window, and I learned how friggin' much a brand new front door can cost. She also has a much bigger coat closet to the left.


This is my father's new "cave".
My Mom built a room over the garage that can function as an at home office for my "retired" father as well as a guest room, when she gets the sleeper sofa. It has a beautiful, high, vaulted ceiling.

Every man has a cave. It might be a garage, or a workshop, or a shed, or his bathroom. It's the place he goes to hide... from his nagging wife and suffocating children. My Dad used to have a desk down in the basement. The basement was only semi-finished and not very welcoming. There was also no bathroom in the basement. Every time I would go down there, I would forget what I came for and I would inconveniently all of a sudden have to pee.

My Dad "claimed" he was going through the mail, but half the time he could be found sleeping in the

chair at the desk with a TV on anything from, Pavarotti on PBS, to Baywatch. Many times he was watching some Spanish channel. My Dad can speak, like every Slavic language in existence, but not a lickin' worth of Spanish. Like I said, the basement was his cave. Now his cave is a much nicer place to fall asleep while watching Lazos De Amor do mail.

Although, the basement (not pictured) is pretty sweet now. It was dug out to be bigger and now has a bedroom and bathroom (no more running up to pee), as well as a second kitchen. It also has it's original main area which is now more beautiful and a lovely walk in cedar closet, a whole lot of other storage and a utility area....

But I move on...

I have to throw in this picture of my Brother and his family. They were Bert and Marry Poppins with the kids Jane and Michael. Of course Michael is actually a girl, and if you did not notice, Marry is extremely Pregnant. I think my brother is hoping the next one will not need to be dressed like the son he always wanted, but will actually be the son he always wanted. (But I think it's a girl - hmmmmmmm)


Apparently Jesus Christ came to visit as well. My brother-in-law claims he was "Samson" as in "Samson and Delilah", but I say he was the "Jesus Christ Superstar" version of JC. Either way, he is standing in front of the, carpet removed, freshly stained, improved upon steps. And notice all the lovely molding. There is beautiful molding all over the house now.


This would be the lovely Contractor and his beautiful family.



And THE KITCHEN!! You think my Mom has enough cabinets. Actually, this is only half of the kitchen. I could not get it all in one shot. The kitchen was pushed out and is 100% new everything. I did not feel so bad that my Mom cooked the entire feast, because she at least got to do it HERE.


Would you like to meet my Mom?



HERE SHE IS!!!

I love the juxtaposition of THIS lady standing in THIS kitchen.

Remember, it is Purim and we do dress up. My mom is her usual "Bag Lady". Remember this
Chanukah post - Return Of The Bag Lady? My Mom likes to give out gifts, via grab bag, to the kiddies and she does it in style. At least THIS time she had age appropriate gifts for each child that was labeled already with their name and was purchased more recently than the 1960's.

This would be the more classy, and usual, look of Mom.



And here are a few more Purim Pictures:


Ro and cousin Yo



My Don Juan on the right, hangin' with the ladies.




Some stragglers left at the table. My Mom has had many meals that had a table going from the dining room to the living room, however, she has recently widened the archway going between the rooms, so now, big fat pregnant ladies can get around the seats.

All the way in the back of this picture is a wall with more lovely molding and a painting in the middle. That wall used to be french doors that opened into a hallway leading to the master bedroom. The hallway behind this new wall has now become my father's new walk in closet. The original large dressing area my Mom used to share with Dad is now just for her. She also pushed out the master bath and the bathroom is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S. No picture of course.

Besides structural changes, my Mom made a lot of spacial changes and aesthetic changes. This is not the house I grew up in, but I will be showing up from time to time. My mom is going to have about 17 people living in her house for Passover this year and another ten (at least) who keep showing up for meals. And we will enjoy it, oh, so much more.