The plan:
Friday services and dinner (See last blog entry)
Saturday services and Kiddush luncheon
Saturday night casual dinner and Family Game & Movie Night (at hotel)
Sunday party--lunch at a restaurant with strolling magician
I've already told you about Friday night. The fortune cookies arrived and I'm splitting them with someone else.
Saturday morning will be a basic Kiddush meal, although I'm adding a seven-layer dip, salsa, and chips (a number of my husband's relatives are from Mexico). On each table, instead of a centerpiece, I'll scatter ten Candy Torahs (each table seats ten). Okay, I "stole" the idea from a website, but I'm making them myself (more cost effective). I ordered Winkies, a kosher version of Smarties from Amazon, designed the paper and am using a glue stick to seal them closed.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tips for DIY Bar Mitzvah planning
When I was growing up, it was much simpler. Services at synagogue, maybe a separate fancy party, and I knew one kid with yet even another party for kids at his house. My brother and I only had a meal at shul after services, and that was fine. Growing up, no one lived more than a few counties away.
Nowadays, we've got out-of-town guests. And so we've got more meals and an entire weekend to plan and provide. And this is fine. It makes for a nice family simcha (happy event). I tend to do a lot myself or to "know how to shop." Even if budget wasn't limited, I must say I honestly can't understand spending so much for a party, when there are bigger things, like retirement and college, which need to be funded...
So, let's talk about Friday night...
After Friday night services, we'll serve dinner at shul to the out-of-towners and my husband's family who live nearby. I'm ordering in Kosher Chinese food and looking for a good pareve (non-dairy non-meat) ice cream (a.k.a. frozen dessert) to serve afterwards. I just ordered a case of fortune cookies (!), since the Kosher Chinese place doesn't have. I'll actually split with someone who's daughter is having her Bat Mitzvah the weekend after my son's. My brainstorn for centerpieces--takeout boxes (free from caterer) with tissue paper ($1?) , fortune cookies (paid for, but if the aterer had had, I would've asked hi for them), chopsticks (free from caterer) and a little fan ($2.95/dozen, courtesy of Oriental Trading--BTW, if you take your catalog to Party City, you get 10% off and you don't pay shipping).
For my oldest son's Bar Mitzvah's Friday night meal three years ago, we ordered from a Kosher Publix. $7 or $7.25 per person for salad, quarter chicken, string bean casserole, and noodle kugle. It was delicious, actually. And I had them make a pareve sheetcake with my son's picture on it...The price has gone up a dollar or so since then, but I decided I wanted something different this time.
The Chinese food runs quite a bit more per adult (meal will include beef dish, chicken dish, veggie lo mein, white rice and fried rice, but no eggroll, in order to keep costs down here), but I'm getting platters of wings and tenders with dipping sauces for the kids, and that's low enough to help offset the rest.
It should be a nice meal, a nice way to start the weekend. Foodwise, we're winding up with an international menu as the weekend goes on.
More in my next post... (Oh and I have to tell you about how I'm making the invitations myself...)
Nowadays, we've got out-of-town guests. And so we've got more meals and an entire weekend to plan and provide. And this is fine. It makes for a nice family simcha (happy event). I tend to do a lot myself or to "know how to shop." Even if budget wasn't limited, I must say I honestly can't understand spending so much for a party, when there are bigger things, like retirement and college, which need to be funded...
So, let's talk about Friday night...
After Friday night services, we'll serve dinner at shul to the out-of-towners and my husband's family who live nearby. I'm ordering in Kosher Chinese food and looking for a good pareve (non-dairy non-meat) ice cream (a.k.a. frozen dessert) to serve afterwards. I just ordered a case of fortune cookies (!), since the Kosher Chinese place doesn't have. I'll actually split with someone who's daughter is having her Bat Mitzvah the weekend after my son's. My brainstorn for centerpieces--takeout boxes (free from caterer) with tissue paper ($1?) , fortune cookies (paid for, but if the aterer had had, I would've asked hi for them), chopsticks (free from caterer) and a little fan ($2.95/dozen, courtesy of Oriental Trading--BTW, if you take your catalog to Party City, you get 10% off and you don't pay shipping).
For my oldest son's Bar Mitzvah's Friday night meal three years ago, we ordered from a Kosher Publix. $7 or $7.25 per person for salad, quarter chicken, string bean casserole, and noodle kugle. It was delicious, actually. And I had them make a pareve sheetcake with my son's picture on it...The price has gone up a dollar or so since then, but I decided I wanted something different this time.
The Chinese food runs quite a bit more per adult (meal will include beef dish, chicken dish, veggie lo mein, white rice and fried rice, but no eggroll, in order to keep costs down here), but I'm getting platters of wings and tenders with dipping sauces for the kids, and that's low enough to help offset the rest.
It should be a nice meal, a nice way to start the weekend. Foodwise, we're winding up with an international menu as the weekend goes on.
More in my next post... (Oh and I have to tell you about how I'm making the invitations myself...)
Monday, February 18, 2008
Rules of behavior
1. No cursing
2. No name-calling
3. No denigrating
4. No yelling about irrelevant issues; talk calmly to the point
5. No throwing bowls of soup across the kitchen
6. Not in front of the children
That's all I can say right now...
2. No name-calling
3. No denigrating
4. No yelling about irrelevant issues; talk calmly to the point
5. No throwing bowls of soup across the kitchen
6. Not in front of the children
That's all I can say right now...
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
No time for illness
Still not feeling well, although 10 days of amoxycillin brought my white blood count and absolute neutrophils back where they ought to be. So then my doctor sent me for a chest x-ray, and a "questionable expansion" of the front side of the second right rib was found. So then I went back for a rib x-ray series (yesterday) and tracked down a chest x-ray I took over a year ago (will pick it up tomorrow) for comparison's sake. But what bothers me most is that I can't stand how my glands so frequently hurt me, my throat is sore (my culture came back okay too), and I feel faint/weak. It was like this all weekend long, and then not yesterday or today, but it started again an hour or two ago. Annoying.
And given that I have a lot of work to do right now--a proposal which is due this week and I have to have it back in the U.K. office's hands before they go to work in the morning--it looks like another late night. (Of course, spending my time blogging does not help!) I know I need sleep, but can't invent hours that don't exist!
And at the same time, I'm trying to move ahead with Bar Mitzvah preparations for my middle son (1st weekend in May). He's doing great--already knows his Haftorah and several of he Torah readings. He's now reviewing/learning more of Shacharit (the morning prayers). If he feels comfortable enough with that, he'll be able to lead those as well. SiddurAudio.com has been a great resource for him (and for anyone who wants to become more familiar with prayers, I suggest it strongly). And this week we received the tallit (prayer shawl) that we ordered for him through the synagogue's gift shop. It, along with a tallit bag and tallis clip, are a meaningful gift from my parents. And he loved picking them out himself.
As for me, I'm designing invitations, making all kinds of favors and centerpieces (I'll share ideas in another entry, I promise!), planning menus for multiple meals, and trying to track down an inexpensive kippah supplier. I wanted to use the same man, Ezra, that I used for my oldest son's Bar Mitzvah. He owns a store called Ot in the Cardo in the Old City of Jerusalem and charges 8 shekels (around $2) for a knitted kippah. But we spoke several times, and he'd said he would email pictures of kippot, and still hasn't done it...after numerous conversations and messages.
So I looked online and found another inexpensive one, David Kippot; his knitted ones were $2.50 (more than I wanted to spend), so I was considered his jeans or brocade kippot (I really liked the camouflage, but my husband vetoed that). He's located in China and his website quoted $2 for samples, but via email he told me he wants $25 to ship them (express -- he won't wait in line at the post office to send them cheaper). Scratch that. So, I googled in Hebrew (boy, did I feel clever doing that!), and found another. Like Ezra, Kipot Levin is located in Israel. His website shows $1.47 each for knitted kippot. Wow! But via email, he told me to ship 80-90 would cost $40-$50! So I wrote back, asking if he could stick them in a padded envelope and send them by sea to cut down the cost. He didn't answer. I wrote back to him three times after that, and still no reply. I want to give him the business, as I did Ezra. But neither seem awfully interested in receiving it! I may have to go to the very big and oft-used kippas.com and order suede ($1.95 each), but I really wanted knitted for $2 each or less and would've loved to give the business to an Israel-based company. Very frustrating!!!!
Okay, must get back to work!
And given that I have a lot of work to do right now--a proposal which is due this week and I have to have it back in the U.K. office's hands before they go to work in the morning--it looks like another late night. (Of course, spending my time blogging does not help!) I know I need sleep, but can't invent hours that don't exist!
And at the same time, I'm trying to move ahead with Bar Mitzvah preparations for my middle son (1st weekend in May). He's doing great--already knows his Haftorah and several of he Torah readings. He's now reviewing/learning more of Shacharit (the morning prayers). If he feels comfortable enough with that, he'll be able to lead those as well. SiddurAudio.com has been a great resource for him (and for anyone who wants to become more familiar with prayers, I suggest it strongly). And this week we received the tallit (prayer shawl) that we ordered for him through the synagogue's gift shop. It, along with a tallit bag and tallis clip, are a meaningful gift from my parents. And he loved picking them out himself.
As for me, I'm designing invitations, making all kinds of favors and centerpieces (I'll share ideas in another entry, I promise!), planning menus for multiple meals, and trying to track down an inexpensive kippah supplier. I wanted to use the same man, Ezra, that I used for my oldest son's Bar Mitzvah. He owns a store called Ot in the Cardo in the Old City of Jerusalem and charges 8 shekels (around $2) for a knitted kippah. But we spoke several times, and he'd said he would email pictures of kippot, and still hasn't done it...after numerous conversations and messages.
So I looked online and found another inexpensive one, David Kippot; his knitted ones were $2.50 (more than I wanted to spend), so I was considered his jeans or brocade kippot (I really liked the camouflage, but my husband vetoed that). He's located in China and his website quoted $2 for samples, but via email he told me he wants $25 to ship them (express -- he won't wait in line at the post office to send them cheaper). Scratch that. So, I googled in Hebrew (boy, did I feel clever doing that!), and found another. Like Ezra, Kipot Levin is located in Israel. His website shows $1.47 each for knitted kippot. Wow! But via email, he told me to ship 80-90 would cost $40-$50! So I wrote back, asking if he could stick them in a padded envelope and send them by sea to cut down the cost. He didn't answer. I wrote back to him three times after that, and still no reply. I want to give him the business, as I did Ezra. But neither seem awfully interested in receiving it! I may have to go to the very big and oft-used kippas.com and order suede ($1.95 each), but I really wanted knitted for $2 each or less and would've loved to give the business to an Israel-based company. Very frustrating!!!!
Okay, must get back to work!
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