The return of winter

It is the first of December and there is snow falling. This cannot bode well for the weeks and months ahead. The weather forecast indicates that this will continue on and off into Tuesday.

As a result of listening carefully to the predictions, we did something we virtually never do: we drove back to New York from Sharon after Shabbat. Although it ends early Saturday night at this time of year, the traffic was quite heavy, and the ride took a good hour longer than the usual 3½ hours it usually takes. But we arrived home safe and sound, and the flakes began to fall by late this morning, validating our decision.

Having said all that, we still regret having to make that decision, because it cut short the time we had with our family. Still, we did manage to have some fun. In order to avoid the eve-of-holiday traffic, we had arranged for our usual Wednesday house cleaning to be done on Tuesday, and left New York that afternoon. On Wednesday, the schools had early dismissal, so we took Eliana and Ella to see “Playing with Fire.” I am not even going to dignify this movie with a full review, but it did have a few amusing lines and the girls enjoyed it, which was, after all, the main goal of the exercise.

On Thurday morning we headed off with Dina and family in a cold, light rain to the nearby town of Dedham, where all 6 of them ran a 5K “Turkey Trot.” This has become fairly popular, with similar races in a slew of small towns in the area. Technically the two little ones participated in jogging strollers pushed by their parents. Ella has gotten into running with Dina, and Joshua, who had never run such a race, did quite well, arriving at the finish line well before the rest of the group. The rain finally stopped about midway through the race.

Joshua came over to watch some sports with Barry for the afternoon, and then we all headed over to Simmie’s house for a huge Thanksgiving feast with our daughters and their families, who were joined by Ronen’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law and their four children, so we were a group of twenty in total. It was a “Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat,” to steal a phrase from Arlo Guthrie.

We spent Friday morning with Julia, playing games and drawing and watching a movie. She is really such a joy to have around.

On Shabbat we had lunch with Dina and family. And as soon as it ended, we packed up the car and headed back to New York.

Barry has a busy week ahead. Early this morning – at 6 am local time – he taught the first of five mornings of lectures to a group of radiation oncology residents at the various hospitals in Israel. For over thirty years, he had travelled to Israel (or in two instances, it was actually in Istanbul and included residents from a variety of countries throughout the Middle East) every five years or so to teach this course. He wanted to be able to continue to do this but was reluctant to take on the travel, because it would keep him away from me for too long and is simply exhausting. So, he told the organizers that he would be happy to teach if they would allow him to do so remotely, which these days, with the wonders of modern technology, is actually quite feasible. The first sessions this morning went quite smoothly.

Of course, since we arrived home rather late last evening, we have really burned the candle at both ends, and although it is only mid afternoon we are definitely starting to slow down.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and if you are in the path of this storm, which is quite large and intense, just stay safe and warm!

Love,

Rebecca