Thanksgiving in Israel

Thanksgiving in Israel seems to be a big deal only to Americans. The grocery stores and even Makolets (bodegas/kiosks) in the more "American" neighborhoods have cans of cranberry sauce and Libby's pumpkin filling.

I have never really liked Thanksgiving. It is hard for me to celebrate a hoiday where the sole purpose seems to be over eating and eating more and then maybe watching football.

This year, I went up to Hannah's kibbutz. I wanted to get out of Jerusalem for a few days and also gave us the opportunity to celebrate Devora's 21st birthday with Hannah who could only get one day off. I went up Wednesday afternoon and helped Hannah cook dinner and then we went to the refet. (see previous post) No cow births but some great Hannah quotes.

Thusday was Hannah's day off and we woke up early to get baking. We baked an apple pie (for dinner) and one and a half cakes for Devora's birthday. The mix that I had bought had bugs in it (Hannah called and complained so of course they are sending her the package- I told her that she owes me!) and then we made a chocolate cake from scratch. We then ran and caught a tremp (ride) to Afula where we met Noa for Lunch. (Noa was at Ramah this summer as part of the mishlachat and is from Afula.) We then tremped back to the kibbutz, napped for an hour and then went back to Afula to fetch Devora. When we got to Hannah's room, we have a small party for DB and then chilled before heading to dinner with Hannah's extended family. We had Poyke again and this time I watched to see how it was made. We were going to go out to the pub after but we were all tired and getting up early again.

Brent and the poyke!

Caught another tremp back to Afula in the morning and took the bus to Jerusalem. Then walked to the shuk and felt like a queen with all of the stuff that I bought for less than 100 shekels (ab. $27).
-4 cucumbers
-6 tomatoes
-2 ears corn
-1 giant pomogranet
-3 loaves of bread (olive, whole grain, sourdough)
-10 pitas
-2 rolls (hoggie rolls)
-1 bag of gummy candies
-1 jar date honey
-10 falafel balls
-8 bananas

Then home to get ready for shabbat and "thanksgiving" shabbat dinner with friends and rest time. Jessie made dinner with all the trimmings.

Tomorrow-another sunday of classes.