The Chatzos Challenge in the Holy Land, Part III: Watching Pesach Happen

Thoughts and reflections about my visit to Israel for Pesach.  I am going to try to keep this as chatzos related as possible.  There will be fewer hyperlinks, however, because I have less time to write.  Enjoy!

It was a very busy day in my host's home: one granddaughter is here while her brother is in the hospital, her daughter and two other grandchildren are in from Beersheva to escape any rockets from Gaza, and my host is turning over her kitchen for Pesach.

Wait.  WHAT?!?  SHE IS TURNING OVER HER KITCHEN FOR PESACH?!?  There are 5 kids here under the age of 4!  The seder is A WEEK AWAY!  IS SHE NUTS?!?

Rest assured.  My host is NOT nuts.  She is just an expert chatzos person.  And when I say expert, I mean she was done with Shabbos last week at 3 pm.  On Thursday.  What did she do on Friday?  Took my son and her granddaughter to a bakery, took them to the park, bathed them together, ect.  Basically, she was the best savta a kid could ask for.  I envy her calm.

So, why turn over the kitchen SO early with SO many kids running around (with cheerios, bamba, lady fingers, you name it)?  "I would like to finish cooking for the whole chag by Wednesday because I plan on taking a two day trip with my ima and sisters erev Pesach."  Brilliant.  That is going into the holiday in style.

The Chatzos Challenge in the Holy Land, Part II: What happens in Israel... Stays in Israel

But only because I can't get to a computer long enough to write a proper post.  There is a lot of chatzos-y goodness going on in these parts.  I can't wait to update when I get a chance.  In the meantime, here are excerpts of an update that I sent to friends and fam this evening:

DH's schedule has been very flexible and we have been able to take many little day trips around the country.  Unfortunately, our GPS, I have named her Brenda, is not the best navigator.  We have taken quite a few detours.  No matter!  We are having fun, all the same. 

On Sunday, we planned a trip to Ramat Beit Shemesh to pick up our cell phone.  This was supposed to be a simple trip and then we would stop at the home of our host's daughter on the way back to Chashmonaim so that DS could play with our hosts' granddaughter.  Brenda had other plans for us.  After a tour of the West Bank from the Israeli Route 443 (very safe highway!  Stop freaking out!), Brenda brought us to the center of Jerusalem where she had us circle a spot that I can only guess was the geographic center of the city.  For those in Houston, this was like trying to get from Katy to Sugerland via I-10 through downtown (and then circling downtown instead of actually going to Sugerland).  We had fun trying to get to where we needed to be and the drive was BEAUTIFUL!  I can't even describe it.  The wildflowers are blooming right now-- the hills outside of Jerusalem are green and gold and purple and yellow.  Incredible.  We all had a very nice time (had some marvelous bagels in Ramat Beit Shemesh) and then went to caves with stalactites and stalagmites close to Beit Shemesh.  DS's favorite part of the caves?  Hearing all about the explosion from the quarry that led to the discovery of the caves.  He could care less about the rock structures.    

Today, we had in mind that we would visit Jerusalem to run some errands and see some friends.  Brenda only got us a little confused trying to find parking.  But then we tried very hard to make sure that we got thoroughly lost on this trip, also.  After a little 40 minute detour trying to find a place to eat our lunch, we set out to meet our friends S & B.  Very long story short, it wasn't going to work to see the Bormasters.  It was ALSO not going to work to do our errands.  Rather than scrap the whole day, we decided to just take a nice walk to the Old City (for those of you that know the city, we were up by Center One).  Things like this ONLY happen in Jerusalem: we were at the corner of Yafo and King George when who do we see?  S & B!  And then we ran into another Houstonian about 3 minutes later.  It was meant to be.  B had great perspective for us: this only happens in Israel-- you make plans and things just go the opposite direction.  Why?  Because G-d is trying to remind you that you are not in charge.  It is so much more evident here.  We were obviously meant to have coffee with the B and then visit the Gush Katif museum today.  And it was a great way to spend the day.

Can't wait to update more... and tell you all about my host.  She is my chatzos (and chesed) role model!