It's been a while

I can't believe three weeks have gone by. Life's been hectic and I've been busy. Since I can't remember most of the lost time, I'll start from Inbal's arrival.
Inbal arrived a week ago Thursday and with no time to recover from jetlag was catapulted into our family's life cycle events.
Friday night, Alissa hosted a dinner for Sari's out of town wedding guests. (Inbal was the guest, I just tagged along.)
Saturday morning was the Aufruf (synagogue service where the groom is called up during the Torah portion reading), followed by a kiddush luncheon at the synagogue. We got home in time for Inbal to take a decent nap.
Sunday was the Sari's wedding. Inbal and I got up early and went to the synagoue to hang the chuppah. It looked lovely and I am quite proud of it. From there we went to Sobie's (local kosher grocery store) to meet Bat and Sandy and buy the food for Monday's 80-85-90. More about that later.
The wedding was at 6 p.m. at Pride of Israel synagogue. The sanctuary was beautifully decorated and because the chuppah was on a raised platform, it was visible from down below. My only problem was that it was over lit from above and the stray fuschia and purple threads were visible from up close. Of course everyone was looking at the bride and groom so the only one concerned with the stray threads was me...
The dinner and dancing was great. The band was really good and had almost everyone on their feet. I had had a long day so left at around 11 p.m. so I wasn't there when a wedding guest tripped and fell through a plate glass window. She's OK, but it's the kind of excitement you don't need at a wedding or any other time for that matter. Luckily, the bride and some of her guests were doctors and the patient was well cared for while waiting for the ambulance.
Monday afternoon between 2 and 4 p.m. there was a birthday party for my uncle (80), my mother (85) and my aunt (90) at the party room at my aunt's condo. It was thrown by my cousins, my siblings and me (there's 9 of us).
Bat came over to my place at about 10 a.m. and we started cutting up fruit for the fruit platters. We had been shopping the day before and the food was in my fridge -- I have two fridges standing side-by-side in my kitchen from the days when we had a house full of children and entertained more frequently. Now the second fridge is only used on the major holidays. At noon, we rushed over the party room to set up.
Did I mention that instead of renting tablecloths or using paper, I sewed and iron fifteen of them from an old bolt of fabric I found? Did I mention that the fabric was apparently cotton, the kind that you look at and it wrinkles?
Anyways, we set up the room, decorated and kudos to Inbal. She used crepe paper to decorate the table where we had the three birthday cake slabs. And we sprinkled the tables generously with shiny confetti. The kids made the wall decorations including signing boards for each of the honorees guests. And Judy, a cousin from New York, brought photo boards.
Anyways, it was very nice. The speeches were short and each of the three honorees received a certificate from the organization to which a donation had been made in their honour.
In all, it was a pleasant although hectic weekend.
On Tuesday, I was back at work, but on Wednesday, Inbal and I went on a craft excursion. We started out by going to the needlepoint store up in Richmond Hill. They have all kinds of velvet theads and shiny threads and silk ribbon and embroidery flosses. I loaded up for my current project. From there, we took the subway downtown and went to Bead Junction, a bead store on Roncessvalle way out in the west end of town. It's a really nice store and the stuff is displayed really well, all set out according to colour and type. Needless to say, we bought stuff. Then we hopped on the streetcar to Queen Street and hit the fabric, button and bead stores there. Not to mention the art supply stores. Inbal is into the paper crafts but hasn't purchased any supplies yet. By the time we finished with a late lunch, Inbal's feet had gotten the best of her and since she was leaving the next day for Vancouver, we called it a day and went home.
Thursday Sandy and Bat took Inbal to the airport and then we went into work.
Friday, Sandy and Bat took my mother and me up to camp. They stayed at a hotel in Smiths Falls.
Oops. It's getting lat and I have to get ready for work.
I'll tell you about the weekend later.