Trip to New York - Part III

On Monday morning, Abba and Ezra dropped off Uncle Joshua at Lander College after Shacharis. Ezra was being shy, but we managed to also meet, Yakov Hill, Jeff Mally, Moshe Schaffer, Isaac Manaster and Jon Savage. We also gave R' Shmulevitz a copy of Saba's new book in memory of Savta.

Even though it was raining hard and Abba had to put a quarter in the meter, we still stopped off at the Towne Variety on Main Street to pick up Abba's new backpack. It was the same exact backpack and the same exact price as Abba remembers when he bought his last backpack there about 6 years ago.

We came back to Great Neck and did our banking and post officing. Abba dropped off Ezra and went to pick up Zeidi and bring him back to Great Neck. After 'trying' to organize the garage, we all went to Mincha/Maariv and then Zeidi treated everyone to Chinese at Cho-Sen Gardens. Zeidi and Ezra had the chicken nuggets and Abba and Avigdor had pepper steak. Saba stayed home and ate leftovers.

Trip to New York - Part II

On Motzai Shabbos, Ezra and Abba made a Shiva call with Grandpa to Margaret's daughters house in Great Neck. We also made another Shiva call at the Honigs, close friends of our family. Ezra met Shaun, Abba's childhood friend, and his family, and we looked at some pictures of when Abba was the same age as Ezra. We came home to help Grandma Libby and Aunt Merrill with their luggage and decided to go to sleep early and get an early start

Because Saba's car wouldn't start (he ended up getting a new car on Sunday), he needed to use the van and Grandpa decided that I should take his car (really Gail's car) while they were still in Israel (coming back Monday night).

So, early Sunday morning we dropped off Grandpa in Fort Lee and made it to Elizabeth in time for the 8:00 Elmora Hills Shacharis. Ezra spent the morning with Grandma Rhoda and Grandpa while Bubby was teaching until noon. Bentzy and Michelle came over with the kids and took Ezra and Abba to Costco to go grocery shopping. After a game or two of sequence, a Snow White movie and a big lunch of Yom Tov leftovers, Ezra and Abba got dressed to go to Landon's wedding

We drove up in time for the end of the bedeking. Saba was honored with reading the Kesuva, while Ezra and Abba went up to make the 4th of the Sheva Brachos. Ezra was one of only a few children their and had a good time dancing and making new friends. We also had a chance to see Aunt Lisa, Uncle Shimi, Yosef Avraham Elchanan, Uncle Avigdor, the Berns family, Lisa Felber, Aunt Jean, and cousins Rachel, Celia and George Blumenthal.

Ezra, Abba and Uncle Avigdor helped organize Sheva Brachos by Benching since all the other clergy seemed to have left already. We got home very late and went straight to bed.

Trip to New York - Part I

Abba and Ezra flew to New York on Hoshana Rabbah. We met Aunt Merrill and Jessica who were coming in from California and together took a taxi to Great Neck. Grandma Libby, Zeidy, Josh and Saba were also in Great Neck for the 3-day Yom Tov.

Ezra came to shul all three days despite the rain. Moshe Jensen and his Abba made sure that Ezra felt welcome. Ezra collected a lot of tickets and will give them to Uncle Josh to enter him into the Great Neck Synagogue Youth Raffle.

Friday was Isru Chag for us and Simchas Torah for the rest of Great Neck. We danced with the Torah and the community, but when everyone else continued with Torah reading and Mussaf, Ezra and Abba went home to play board games and learn Chumash.