High holidays

It was great to have so many friends and family around to celebrate the Jewish holidays this year.  We made a big dinner at our place for Rosh Hashana for us and the Reiss's and Sambur's.  We all got dressed up, and even used the china and silver (not at the kids' table!).  This is the first time the kids outnumbered the adults -- between us, we have 7 kids - but they were very well behaved, and we all still had fun!

For the actual day, Bill and I checked out the "Adventure Rabbi" program (only in Boulder!) which involved a hike through the mountains, some group discussion about the meaning of life and religion, and then a sermon in one of the most beautiful settings I've been in.  Much better than the services where you count the ceiling tiles and wait for the obligatory event to end.  At the end, she unrolled the torah and asks each participant to hold a part of it while she read the final prayers, which was both inclusive and beautiful.  Even the animals got into it -- two moose strolled through the water and looked on :)

For the second night, we went to my sister's house for another delicious feast. As always, we all had a great time and the food was delicious.  Jen managed to pack a crowd around the table, and at the end -- as always -- the kids didn't want to leave (even though the basement was out of commission due to the floods)!

We ended up having a big dinner for Yom Kippur's break the fast too, but since it was thrown together at the last minute (was supposed to be at our friends' house, but they had too much water damage), I seem to have forgotten to take pictures!!