Tani Spins a Dreidel

Yes, folks, it's very exciting - Tani can spin a sivivon all by himself, the day has come. I promised myself I wouldn't cry.....

The past week and a half has been relatively uneventful. Bubby and Zaidy left last Monday (Dec. 8) - a tear. We really enjoyed having them here and are anxiously awaiting their next visit in May. I am very lucky because I will actually be seeing them in a few weeks. I am going to the States at the beginning of January for about a week for Michelle Schuster's wedding (yay Michelle and Avrami). Although it is going to be close to impossible to be away from Tani and Elie for that long (and especially because it includes a shabbat and Elie and I have never been apart for shabbat - awwww), I'm really excited to see all of our friends and family back in the old country.

To expound upon this entry's title, the Chanukah craze at gan has begun! About a week ago Tani came home talking about his sivivon and menorah and a bunch of other things that we couldn't understand. As the days have progressed, he has already brought home 2 Chanukah-themed projects, an ACTUAL sivivon, and he can swing (quite nicely) the entire "Sivivon, Sof, Sof, Sof". It was a little confusing at the beginnig to decode that he was saying "Nes Gadol Hayah PO" but we evenutally figured it out. And as much as we are thrilled that Tani is learning so much, he has become a little obsessed with the sivivon. And obsessed is an absolute understatement. From the minute he wakes up in the morning until he goes to sleep at night (and sometimes longer) he is holding onto his sivivon watching it go round and round - "Look Ima, it pins (spins)!"
In truth, we are all very excited for Chanukah becuase on our block, everyone gets those plexiglass container things and lights outside their apartments. Also, we've been told, that on the first night of Chanukah they light a big menorah at the top of the street and there is a big Chanukah block-party (and we love parties, but mainly, we/I love sufganiyot). We are also hosting a Klein-Rose-Eisen Family Chanukah Party/Siyyum for Elie on Seder Mo'ed that we are very excited about.

In other news, I did 2 VERY IMPORTANT things this morning. Firstly, I went to the Misrad Hapanim and applied for my Teudat Ma'avar. To explain, a new oleh cannot get an Israeli passport until he/she has been a citizen for a year. Obviously, this poses a problem to those of us who may be travleing outside of Israel within our first year of aliyah. The solution to this problem is the Teudat Ma'avar. Secondly, I went to the eye store (in the same shopping center as the Misrad Hapanim) to get my eye test and my ALL IMPORTANT GREEN FORM so that I may begin the horrific licensing process.
Let me explain that I was very apprehensive about both of these tasks because I figured that, given my luck, I would not have the correct documentation or form or what-have-you and I would be denied either one or both of these documents. Therefore, I made SEVERAL photocopies of my Teudat Zehut, Teudat Oleh and US driver's license. Additionally, I brought all those originals with me along with my US passport and passport pictures (those I knew I would DEFINITELY need). My purse was so heavy but I felt armed and ready - like nothing could stop me now. At the Misrad Hapanim I simply needed to fill out a form and hand them the form, my Teudat Zehut, and 2 passport pictures. The process went suprisingly smoothly and I should be receiving my Teudat Ma'avar in about a week. Hmmm, I wondered - surely I will need at least ONE of my many forms at the eye store! After waiting about 20 minutes for them to actually open the shop, I went in, got my picture taken and did a 30 second eye test (which was truthfully only hard because I was identifying the numbers that I saw very quickly in hebrew and was afraid that I would make a mistake...) I then got my GREEN FORM, paid 30 NIS and left. Sadly, no one needed my beautifully photocopied pages, sigh.