Shalom! This week is very special for me, because on Wednesday my mom arrived to town!

Last Friday I had meeting at the federation with Guy and we planned our program together for the ECC (we’ll talk about more) and then went to Shaare Emeth for my second time Challah baking with the ECC and it was so much fun and the kids loved it! Then in the evening I went to an “Israeli Shishi Dinner” at Bais Abraham- an event of the Israeli community here and it was really nice to be surrounded with Israelis and have an Israeli Friday dinner.

On Saturday I had my Dvar Israel at Kol Rinah and I talked about the upcoming elections in Israel and connected it to our choices in life, and elections and choices in Hebrew come from the same word “choice”. I also talked about how the weekly Parsha “Vaiyshlach” and how it’s also related to the elections and the choices we have in our life. Then I had lunch with a couple of Israeli families and I really enjoyed it and in the evening I went to St. Charles with a friend and it was beautiful with all the light decorations.

On Sunday I had Sunday school at Shaare Emeth and we did art activity about Hanukkah and the kids enjoyed it, after that I made my bulletin board and at some point I had to go back home because it started to snow really hard.

On Monday Guy and I were supposed to have our first joint activity for the ECCs in our congregations but because of the snow we had to cancel it. I enjoyed my first snow day and in the afternoon I played with the snow and slide down the driveway! I really liked it and had a lot of fun!

On Tuesday, I had a half snow and didn’t have ECC at Shaare Emeth. By noon I went to Shaare Emeth to organize my activity for the Religious School for Hanukkah- 8 stations with activities for all the kids! They had a really good time in my activity and I am glad about it because I worked on this activity really hard. In the evening I had USY lounge night and we had a white elephant party.

On Wednesday noon my mom arrived!!! I am more than happy that she’s here and it was so good to see her again after almost 4 months. I showed her Shaare Emeth and in the evening we went to see Wicked at the Fox Theatre! It was amazing!!!

Today I did the activity that Guy and I planned at the ECC at United Hebrew and the kids loved it and it was good to work with Guy. Then I had a meeting with Cynthia at the Federation, after that lunch with Guy’s family, Cynthia, my mom and I and then I showed my mom Kol Rinah and had classes with the ECC about Hanukkah, we danced to Hanukkah Hebrew songs and made Hanukkah crowns! In the evening we had dinner with my first host family, the Samsons, and then we went to Tilles park!

On Sunday we’re leaving to California and the west coast for 10 days!

Hope you’ll have a wonderful weekend!

Shaked

Sam March
Author: Sam March