For falling off the face of the earth is a big trip

It has been brought to my attention that I haven't blogged in awhile. So I checked, and holy cow! It has been awhile. Many apologies. There was much going on, including my sister getting married! Said event entailed the following:

• mom coming for a visit. She decided to spend the first of her 3 weeks with us.
  
• however, since said sister was getting married, there was a lot of happy shlepping into Jerusalem.
  
• and visiting other relatives who were gradually making their way in.
  
• and the tichel party
  
• and dad arriving
  
• and the "groom's family meets the bride's family" cocktail party
  
• followed by wedding supply shopping
  
• followed by Shabbat, which was in the Old City, where we were staying with my sister
  
• which included the Shabbat Kallah; the sister's friends coming over for Seudah Shlishit
  
• followed by wedding preparation stuff
  
• and the day of the wedding, and all the girlie stuff that goes along with that
  
• and all the emotional stuff that weddings bring out
  
• then visiting the police because my mother's jewellery was stolen
  
• which happened before the first Sheva Brachot
  
• and the 100 degree fever I came down with that day
  
• which was the day before we were hosting 40 people for the second Sheva Brachot
  
• after which we spent a casual day in Jerusalem having lunch with the new couple and the parents (for the first time this visit)
  
• where we discovered the jewellery had been returned, coincidentally right after the police informed the hotel staff that they would all have to take a polygraph test
  
• which was good news for my parents to return to the States with,
  
• which was followed by Pesach cleaning
  
• which involved one - count 'em, one! - seder.

I missed a lot of ulpan. But I had a lot of taxi drivers to speak Hebrew with!

For recovery purposes, we resolved to do absolutely nothing this Chol HaMoed. Nothing. And the beautiful thing about being in Israel is almost everyone is on vacation. During Chol HaMoed - the days between the first and last days of Pesach - schools are closed (no ulpan!), many businesses are off, and a sense of festivity abounds. Since you aren't supposed to do any laundry during Chol HaMoed, I had no chores, so I sat around and read and played on the computer and finally caught up on my email. The only problem was, with Shabbat in the middle, and 7 days instead of 8, it seemed like there was hardly any Chol!

We had a trip on Monday, which was our only concession. I love the desert, and this was a trip to the desert, to hike through a canyon, ride camels, and go on a jeep ride through the desert (the best part!). So I happily gave up a day of doing nothing for that.

More on that in the next post...