My new boyfriend

We had another great, leisurely time at the Sharon's house on Saturday. We were invited to lunch, partly to celebrate Sukkot -- the last of the many holidays in September and October -- and partly to welcome Keren and Ben (Keren's fiancee) back from the States (We know Keren through Ben. Both Bens are good friends and worked together in Michigan).

As with any big family gathering, whether in Israel or in the States, it was long and unhurried. We arrived for "lunch" a little after noon, ate at two, and left at 6:30.

For you foodies out there who have been wondering about the local cuisine, it was all excellent. For the first course we were served devilled eggs with handmade mayonnaise, roasted fresh vegetables (eggplant, pepper, broccolli, cauliflower), garlic bread and stuffed grape leaves. The main meal was served buffet-style, with lots of different dishes: roast lamb, roast beef, ground-meat casserole with hummus and pine nuts on top, handmade ravioli, pasta salad and green salad. Dessert was also excellent -- two kinds of frozen not-ice-cream-but-something-very-similar pies (one chocolate, one lemon, both super), fruit salad, cookies and fudge. At Rosh Hashanna everyone joked that Dalia always makes enough food to feed an army. She certainly did on Friday!

Ooooh! And my new boyfriend was there!



Dori is Omer's 2.5 year old (Omer is the Sharons' middle son). He is so adorable!!! He was at the Rosh Hashanna dinner, and we played a bit then. I guess he fell in love with me. It was big joke around the house on Saturday -- most of what he said for the first few hours was, "Marta! Marta!" Hahaha...it was too funny. I got to sit next to him at dinner, and even then it was the same.

Fortunately he had other loves who were also in attendance -- Dalia, his grandmother; and Ben, Keren's fiancee. He bounced around between his favorite people, grabbing as many as he could to be playmates. Dalia said she was glad to be relieved from Dori-duty for once; since she's the usual favorite, at these sorts of gatherings she ends up playing with Dori and doesn't get to talk much with the grownups.

Not that there was a whole lot of talking coming out of the two Bens ("Benim" as they're now collectively known). Dalia bought a battery-powered car track for Dori in Ben and Keren's name, so the two doctors of physics and Aron (the youngest of the three Sharons) spent a couple of hours on the kitchen floor -- stumped -- trying to put the thing together.



During dinner, Keren actually read the assembly instructions (which no one had done), corrected a couple of the boys' mistakes and managed to get the thing together. Then the boys rushed back (including Dori for a few minutes here and there), and played with it long enough to run the batteries down. It was pretty hilarious.

But now I've got to get out before it gets too hot and run off the mountain of food I ate over the weekend. Cheers!