Cheers to the Holidays!

Ah yes, the holidays are upon us and we celebrated by having a little holiday fun at our apartment. The preparations began on Wednesday with a trip to IKEA for some festive candles (i.e. red....because that's about as festive as it gets here) and a few staples from the "big" grocery store, aka the Tiv Taam. The preparations continued onto Thursday with some serious shopping at the Shuk. Now I love to hate the Shuk. I could list a zillion things that I hate about it....it's dirty, it's narrow and crowded, it's loud, it's full of junk, etc, etc, etc. But the one thing it seriously has going in its favor is.....it's cheap. And so am I. And cheapness is an essential when you're trying to throw a party and feed all your guests something more interesting than pita and hummus (which of course we still served because it's a crime in Israel to not have pita and hummus.) So Phil and I schlepped through the Shuk for a couple of hours gathering all of the items on our list which included lots and lots of cheese, olives, mushrooms, lemons, strawberries, clementines, party supplies like plates, cups and forks (yes, they actually sell that there) and some pretty flowers for decorations because hey, we didn't have anything else. We were successful on two accounts. One, we found everything we needed. Two, we saved a ton of money. I think we bought about 15 clementines for about 6 shekels. That's like a dollar and a half. Of course not everything is that cheap, but it was still a significant savings over the regular grocery store.

Once we got home from our marathon of shopping we got busy in the kitchen. (Busy cooking.....minds out of the gutter please.) We baked about a zillion ginger and M&M cookies (that's 2 different kinds of cookies, wonderful as they might be together), made curried chicken salad and started prepping some of the other ingredients. About ten o'clock in the evening we were exhausted and hungry and really didn't want to mess up the kitchen any more to make something to eat. So we headed out to grab a quick bite of Shwarma and then proceeded to pass out, completely exhausted. I expected to sleep nice and soundly and wake rested and ready to tackle the rest of the party preparations, however that didn't exactly happen,......at all. Both Phil and I awoke around 4 in the morning with a serious case of heart burn. Shwarma. Damn Shwarma. We hit the bottle of Tums (I pop the cocoa and cream ones like candy) and then collapsed back into bed. However, sleep was elusive to us both. Phil got up before I did but eventually I realized that I was just not going to fall back asleep. So I finally begrudgingly dragged my tired butt out of bed and we both set to work in the kitchen. We figured if we were up, that we better get working so that we could nap later on before the party. So at five in the morning Phil and I were up and at'em and hard at work in the kitchen. Eventually we both laid down to try and catch some more Z's. While Phil managed to get in a few more hours I might have eked out an hour or so. For some damn reason I just could not get to sleep. I guess I was just too excited about the party!

We finished everything in time, and we even had time to get ourselves cleaned up and looking good. The house was nice and clean and we even hung up some Christmas lights for a little festivity. The food was either done or ready to be cooked up at the last minute and we waited for our guests to arrive. On the menu was a lovely assortment of cheese and crackers, olives, chips and guacamole, pita and hummus (of course!), fruit, stuffed mushrooms, lamb meatballs and cookies. So let the party begin.....

Everyone seemed to have a fun time and all of our stuffed mushrooms were devoured. By the time everybody was gone, we were seriously wiped out. And of course the next day was a total bust because nothing takes the energy out of you like spending three days preparing for a party, entertaining your guests at your party and then cleaning up after your party. Now we are already onto planning our Christmas evening and New Year's Eve. Lucky for us we aren't hosting either one of them! We just have to show up. And bring food. Easy enough.

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Chanukkah, or a Happy Pancha Ganapati, or whatever it is you celebrate! We wish we could be with our families this time of year but we are grateful for so many wonderful friends here in Israel and we'll be crossing our fingers that we might be back home (wherever that may be) this time next year! Happy Holidays!