We’ve been counting down the weeks and days to Shavuot and it’s finally here – we know, because we are out of jelly beans. Apparently seven weeks wasn’t quite enough time for me to think of anything really creative to do to celebrate. Or, even anything uncreative to do. I haven’t planned anything at all, actually.
There was a time in my life when Shavuot was my favorite holiday. I would stay up all night at Torah study sessions at the minyan I attended in New York, and usually taught a session as well. Sadly, there isn’t a vibrant, adult learning community where I live, and I haven’t yet figured out what a family/kid oriented Shavuot could look like. It’s really too early to celebrate the first fruits of the harvest, at least here in New England, and I can’t talk about the Ten Commandments with my kids until I come up with a way to explain adultery.
In a moment of inspiration (that came to me about five minutes ago), I decided to make a mountain of nachos for dinner. Get it? A mountain? You know, like Har Sinai? (And yes, I know nachos are not really dinner, but they are serving pizza and cheesecake at shul tonight. Which, come to think of it, isn’t much better.)
But, in my defense, I do want to show off the beautiful mural my first graders made of Har Sinai. Can you tell that it’s about 10 feet high?
By the way, after Shavuot I’ll be moving to my fancy new digs at beliefnet.com. I apologize in advance for the weight loss ads.
Nachos sound sgreat! And our shul will be having salads and ice cream tomorrow, can’t wait!!
Our kids have been walking around singing the 10 Commandments song, and making the 10 Commandments out of number magnets or any other numbers they can find (eg/ typing 1 through 10 on my computer). THIS is why we go to Jewish preschool, I am not sure I’d be quite as creative at home!
Do you have No Rules for Michael by Sylvia-Rouss? It came recently from the PJ program and seems to be a pretty good kids book about The Rules. I’m thinking we’ll read that book over a bowl of ice-cream, but I know your kids are a little older than mine . . .
I second the recommendation for No Rules For Michael. There is a list of kid-friendly 10 commandments at the back.
I love how honest you are!!! I was similarly unprepared, and I ran out to the store at the last minute to get some cheesecake. I also thought I was so clever by pulling out the Celebrate around the Seasons book to read the story about Shavuot! That is until I got to Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery, and promptly heard “What’s Adultery?” Thinking fast, I offered that it’s when two people are married, and one of them kisses a person who’s married to someone else, and then hurried on before they pushed me too far on this. Yikes!
Love the mountain of nachos idea!
We celebrate with friends who started a tradition of eating the ice cream first before the rest of the dairy extravaganza.
We always make flavored butter out of heavy cream. Just put it in a see-through container and shake until it gets there.
We always have fettuccine alfredo for Shavuot dinner. And then we sit around lementing the probable state of our arteries.
When I first read “a mountain of nachos,” I assumed the Yiddish pronunciation, not the Spanish one! Had to go back and reread it before it clicked. But a mountain of the Yiddish kind of nachos would be a good thing too. 🙂
Just discovered your blog– love it!