Christmas for a rabbi

December 25th happened to be a Friday this year.

And what do Jews do on Christmas?  We go to the only restaurants and entertainment that are open... Chinese food and a movie.

The temple held a community-builder that night after services - we brought in Chinese food and showed The Princess Bride.  

I was half-afraid no one would come, but we had over 60 people!

That was more than enough to storm the castle, indeed. :)

Mr. Ari

Aggh!  Too soon, too soon!

After completing a puzzle with a friend at school

Interesting book

I just led a discussion for our temple book club, on a book called The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew - Three Women Search for Understanding, by Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner.

It was a wonderful book for its purpose, as it really got everyone talking.  The part that my group focused on was very much a reflection of the groups' makeup: we didn't focus on prayer, or family, or antisemitism in conversation between the Jewish and Christian women, but rather, on the interactions on Israel between the Muslim and the Jew.

The three authors were very candid and bare their souls, I admire them for writing it.  They even discuss the macro questions, such as, are they atypical examples of people of these religions?  Are they typical?  How can they believe fully in their own faith when they learn and come to respect so much about others'?

I'd recommend the book, but go into it with your eyes open, and be ready to confront your own inner prejudices and stereotypes.  Also, don't put it down just because you may not like what a person says!

(I admit, I did just that with the sequel to Outlander - the author made so many choices different than what I wanted for the characters, I got annoyed and returned it to Barnes and Noble.  But I didn't want to do that with a biography/true story!)

Growing pains, Star Wars, and the festival of lights

The day started off not so fun - with a doctor's appointment for Ari.  He's been complaining a lot in the evenings about pain in his legs, and waking up in the middle of the night crying.  And while I was 99% sure it was growing pains, I'm still a neurotic Jewish mother enough (and I know someone whose child was diagnosed with leukemia from those very symptoms), so we took him in.

My concern was short-lived.  It's growing pains.  His blood is "perfect," according to the doctor.  He showed us some stretching exercises to do with Ari before bed, and talked to Ari about growing so fast that the bones can't keep up.  "Some kids barely notice it, others are miserable," he said.  Since I only have one older kid to compare to, I figured, better safe than sorry!

Ari had wanted pancakes, so after we played in the day (and the older boys saw the titled movie with Jonathan), we made breakfast for dinner and had pancakes and eggs. Ironically we had finished our Bisquick and the only mix left was the kosher for Pesach Manischevitz mix... not my first choice, but add in enough milk and put enough syrup on top, and it's all good.

As it was Christmas Eve, we went out in search of neighborhoods with pretty lights, and oooh, it was fun!  Driving around, looking at the lights (we even went to a 3-mile stretch of lights with a paid entrance)... two out of three kids had conked out by the time we got home.

All in all, a reassuring and relaxing day.

Star Wars VII is AMAZING.

We went to see it opening night. Of course.

And then, a few days later, our friends Matt and Erin came over, visiting from north Florida.  Matt and I were chevruta (study) partners as students in Cincinnati.  He hadn't seen the movie, so we went with him.  Because one, hey, you gotta support your friends.  And two, it really is THAT good.  Jonathan and I thought back and realized that he hasn't seen a movie twice in theatres since Ghostbusters.  Me, I'm almost embarrassed to say, the last time I went twice was when I was 16, for Titanic!

Thank you, Nicole and Joe!

The tower of presents is a Ghirardelli Tower, according to the box.  According to my family, it is a delicious wonderland of chocolate items.  Only the packet of white mocha coffee survives, as the rest has all been inhaled.  Thank you, thank you!

Hanukkah at temple

Playing dreidel at religious school

Latke feast at preschool.

Being serenaded with "I Have a Little Dreidel" at the Latke Vodka event after the Hanukkah Shabbat service

More preschool Hanukkah

A decorative menorah of stones from Ari.  And a handprint art piece from Connor.

Connor's menorah from school

Making a Hanukkah gingerbread house

TBO Coral Springs Holiday Parade

The theme was Star Wars, so temple made a "Droidel."  We won second place!  My entire family rode the float.  And despite the cheering crowd, blasting Hanukkah music, and people shouting "Happy Chanukah," Ari still fell asleep in Jonathan's arms. :)

Super Maccabee: Troopers of the Future!

Note Ari asleep in Jonathan's arms.  Xander is in my lap.  And Connor is in the lap of the temple president, Steve, next to me on the other side of the float.

Ari and I in our Chanukah glory

 

My little composer

The family was singing Hanukkah songs, and all three boys were dancing with enthusiasm in the dining room as we belted out "I have a little dreidel, I made it out of clay."

Then our middle child Ari the Imaginative, four and a half years old, starts to sing his own version, totally off the top of his head:

If I were a dreidel,
 I'll tell you what I'd do 
I'd spin around a million times 
so I could play with you!

The next day I pick him up from school and he has a big smile on his face.  "I'm an artist!" he proclaims.  "My teachers told me so!"

I would agree.  :)

Eta: so it turns out it's another song he learned in school that I didn't know.  Oops.

"Somebody said they saw me in a magazine!" said Xander. "Why am I famous?"

loving life at TBO

There’s a new Rabbi in town

December, 2015

By: 

Michelle F. Solomon

Department: 

People

The smell of potato latkes wafting through different rooms of her childhood home creates memories of Hanukkah for Rabbi Michal Loving of Temple Beth Orr (TBO) in Coral Springs. Now every Hanukkah, she recreates the tradition for her own family. 

“The house would always reek of grease from latkes, so that smell provides wonderful associations for me of family and love and laughter and warmth,” Loving says. “I want my house to smell the same way so that my children will have the same recollections.”

Loving also recalls big family Hanukkah parties, where she’d join other children playing dreidel games on the living room floor. 

There’s a new family tradition she and her husband, Jonathan, have begun with their three children, Xander, Ari and Connor, who range in age from 2 to 7. During one of the eight nights of Hanukkah, each child goes through toys they already own. “They pick out a toy to give as a gift to a child who doesn’t have any toys. This shows the value oftzedakah and of giving to others.”

Loving became TBO’s first female rabbi in July after an 18-month search to replace Rabbi Mark Gross, who retired in June after 29 years with the congregation. She says her first Hanukkah with the congregation will honor the traditions of what has come before, though she admits she will put her own spin on things. For example, Loving will continue the annual tradition of participating in Coral Springs’ Winterfest Holiday Parade on Dec. 9. In keeping with the theme, “Joining Forces for the Holidays,” Loving says the temple will have a float in the parade and it will be “Star Wars” themed; and while she won’t say for certain, Loving could be dressed as one of the iconic characters from the film.  

Passionate about inclusion and making everyone feel welcome, Loving says, “I am proud to continue Rabbi Gross’ legacy while still making my mark on TBO. I am impassioned about spirituality and always want there to be a spiritual aspect to services where people can connect to their neshama – their soul – and where they feel that they can truly connect with the community and with one another.”

Loving frequently talks about the importance of family and community and says that although she applied for rabbinical positions all over the United States, she was drawn to TBO for its vibrancy and for its “feeling that this is a family and everyone really cares about each other.”

A month after Loving joined the temple, TBO became the first Reform congregation in Broward to change its annual membership dues structure in favor of a voluntary financial commitment. “The board had decided this long before I arrived here,” Loving says. “We have grown in three months to have more than 100 new family units. We have a lot of people that have said, ‘I could have never been able to afford to belong to a synagogue, but now I can give the offering of my heart and I can be at home. Thank you for letting Judaism be accessible to us.’”

Loving says when children, especially young girls, inquire about her wearing a kippa (yarmulke), she feels a sense of pride. “I want to be a role model for little girls to show that they can do anything and that the purview of religion, of spirituality and of leadership is not relegated to men alone.” 

Magazine: 

Coral Springs/Parkland Life

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My engineers

Jonathan bought a menorah soldering kit to build with our eldest.

It came in parts.  (Note: we didn't take pics as we went, so these are from the website.  Ours looked exactly like it though.)

Lots of parts. 

Last week, before Chanukah started, Jonathan and Xander got out the coil of metallic wire, the soldering... stuff (see how much I know about this process), and lots of other weird strange looking things.  At one point smoke was involved.

The instructions were complicated, to me.  Xander was excited because it looked like a comic book.

And this is the finished product!  It looks exactly like this.  Except currently it is in our window and not all the candles are lit.  Xander was so proud that he helped make it.

Ours is the one above, with blue lights, but here's a better shot showing its size.  

After they finished, Jonathan called everyone over to see it and asked about the various parts, to explain it to his brothers and me.  Xander pointed out the positive and negative charges, the capacitor, and other things of which I have no idea.  At age seven he knows more about electrical engineering that I do!  My dad is a mechanical engineer, in case anyone's forgotten.  It OBVIOUSLY skipped a generation!

Ooooh

From my email:

Booking Confirmation for STAR WARS: EPISODE VII - THE FORCE AWAKENS

Chanukah dinner, third candle

Book rec for Nicole L.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

I was looking for something that was an escape, something far far away from Judaism and real life.  And I found it!  Outlander is about a woman from 1945 who steps through a mini-Stonehenge in Scotland and finds herself in the 18th century, right before the Jacobite uprising. Of course, she falls in love with a kilted Scot and various adventures ensue, all of them based in reality making Scottish history come alive.  Parts of it were much more dramatic than I was expecting, parts were humorous, and parts were like a romance novel.  It was fun, and I would recommend it for sure.  My mom got me the 2nd and 3rd books (out of a series of 8!) for Hanukkah, and I've already started the second.  There's a TV show about it that's gotten quite popular, and now I know why!

Hanukkah, it is here

Hanukkah was lovely tonight.  We decorated the house in the afternoon, singing Hanukkah songs along the way.  Dinner was chicken nuggets (they're fried!).  Then latkes with applesauce and sour cream for me and Jonathan, applesauce only for the boys.  We brought out every menorah we own and every boy lit his own (Connor with help), we sang the blessings, sang more songs, and opened presents.  Hooray!

We don't have any pictures of that, we were too busy being in the moment.  So here are pictures from yesterday.  We made cookies!

Ari is my baking helper.  Xander could care less, his focus is when the cookies are finished.

Putting out the finished plates in preparation for decorating.

We had white vanilla frosting, and then used food coloring to make green, red, and orange.  Add in sprinkles and edible eyes, and we were in business!  We even made a plate of colorful cookies to take to the neighbors next door.

Connor heard me say that we were going to deliver them to the neighbors' house.  He raced to the door to get ready by himself!

Seminar

Just finished a wonderful two day in person seminar for members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis - "Shekels, Fundraising for Rabbis."  We focused on opportunities for our congregational and organizational members to participate in the mitzvah of Tzedakah, to put the fun in fundraising, and to explore more deeply partnering with our lay leadership in financial resource development for our organizations and congregations.

I learned a TON.

Kid pride

1) The mom of one of Xander's friends told me that someone had mentioned her (7 year old) son was wearing nail polish, and was teasing him.  "Xander was a good friend," she said to both of us, "standing up for him and saying, 'I like nail polish too!'"

2) Ari comes up with the most imaginative stories ever.  About bad guys and good guys, about giant cats and little people, about buses that fly.  I love asking him, "How was your day?" because the answer I get is as likely to be about his actual day as about an idea he had that he wants to share.

3) Connor pooped in the potty today.  And at bedtime, while cuddling, he stroked my hair and said, "Happy Connor.  Happy Mama."

It's the little things in life that make me happy. :)

Thanksgiving weekend

Well, this certainly was the busiest Thanksgiving I've had in a long while!  Or maybe ever.

Wednesday:

Afternoon: The cantor at temple resigned.  

Evening: Took part in an interfaith Pre-Thanksgiving Unity service at a local church, with 10 other faith groups; temples, mosques, churches of different denominations, even a Bahai group.

Thursday:

Early morning: We cleaned our house.  It desperately needed it.  

Late morning: I took the kids to a local park to meet up with Jamie, a friend who I met at a now-defunct CAJE (Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) Conference back in 2002.  We're both married now and have families.  Crazy world.

And guess who I saw while there, in the middle of a park in Florida?  My rabbinic colleague and past Cincinnati roommate Maura and her family, who was visiting family in FL!!  Talk about random.

Afternoon/evening: We were invited to a congregant's for Thanksgiving dinner, which was lovely.  Their eldest daughter turned 21 the day before Thanksgiving, and Connor turned two on Saturday, so we brought a cake for dessert.

Blowing out the birthday candles.

Friday:

Early morning: More house-cleaning for me  Grocery shopping for Jonathan.  

Late morning/afternoon: Connor's birthday party!

There are about a hundred pictures to download from the phone.  Yeah. Haven't gotten to that yet.  We were originally going to say, "no gifts," but then stopped ourselves, because we realized we wanted the older boys to respect his birthday and know that gifts aren't just for them.  And what a lesson it's been!  Hard to learn, but well worth it.  Connor has new trucks and cars and trains and dinosaurs and balls, and is in love with them all.

Evening:

Services with volunteer singers.  2nd Thanksgiving dinner at a congregant's.  I was so full I rolled home.  The babysitter took the boys bike-riding, and they had a fabulous time without us.

Saturday:

Morning: Officiated at a Bat Mitzvah with a guest cantor.  

Afternoon: Went to a 7 year old birthday party at a park.  

Evening: Officiated at a wedding.  Jonathan came with.  The ceremony was good but it was so windy my hair kept blowing in my face, and the papers were blowing away!  Arg.  The party was crazy awesome; the bride is Peruvian, and they brought in full-on Carnivale dancers, complete with costumes and a man in stilts and masks and hats for everyone on the dance floor.  We didn't even get served the main course til 10pm!  Which we were very surprised by, until we googled "Latin weddings" on the way home and what do you know, they traditionally last all night long and you don't start eating til 10 or 11.  The things you learn.

On the way home from the wedding our car started making odd noises and jerking a lot.  It was not fun.

Sunday:

Morning/afternoon: The mechanic confirmed that we needed to replace 6 spark plugs and 2 injector coils.  $700 later, our van runs smoothly.  We had been planning a playdate but couldn't fit all 3 kids in the Leaf, so the friend picked up Jonathan from the mechanic's, then came home, took Xander and I in her car, and then they dropped us back off again so we could get the car.  Quite a day.

We were supposed to see someone else in the evening, but instead we collapsed.

Next year Thanksgiving weekend, we've decided, we're staying in!!

(Edited to add: I have no idea why this post won't center and right-justify properly.  I think there's a bug in the system.  Sorry.)

Connor and Elmo

Mom sent over an Elmo doll for Connor's birthday.

We gave it to him early.

Forget Corwolf.  Elmo is a true lovey in every sense of the word.

Elmo has to sit next to Connor at the table to eat with him.

He has to be with him at bedtime.

He has to come in the carseat, and every day we have to explain anew that Elmo can't come to school.  But he sits in the carseat all afternoon so Connor can hug him the moment he gets back in the car.

Elmo comes with us EVERYWHERE.  It's utterly adorable.  

(Except when Connor came into our bed at 5:30am and we heard, "Come sing the ABC's with Elmo!"  Elmo almost lost his batteries that day.)

Connor, Elmo, tired Mommy

Ari the Shabbat star at preschool

  

Lighting the Shabbat candles in his classroom

Covering our eyes while saying the blessing

 Holding up the wine cup for Kiddush

During the main service.  Only 2 out of 3 because Xander's at a different school.

A partial Loving portrait

Younger kids at school

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