Birthday Bash………
Last night my children made a birthday party for me. Now this was no ordinary birthday party……for me it was very special. You see, now I was officially a senior citizen….so says the Canadian Government and I can collect my old age pension.
In Israel, you apply to Bituach Leumi for pensions and dealing with Bituach Leumi, well that’s another story for another time……
Yes, last night [Wednesday] and today 13th day of the Hebrew month of Cheshvan is my birthday. The secular date was Nov. 7th.
I can hardly believe that I am 65 years old.
So what does it mean to be a senior citizen? Am I supposed to feel different than let’s say I felt last week?
According to Wikipedia the definition of a senior is: Senior Citizen is a common and polite designation for an elderly person and it implies or means that the person is retired. So why can’t they just say the person is retired. Why do we need a title?
By the way, I am neither elderly nor retired. I am also not a “spring chicken.” A couple of months ago, when my daughter gave birth, I babysat for her 6 children during the day. Now let me tell you that the kids were great, but at the end of the day I was exhausted.
The baby had jaundice and so she was in the hospital for a couple of extra days.
You need to be young physically not just young at heart to look after the needs of young children.
I decided that since I am in a new faze of my life, I need to set some new goals.
Now back to the birthday bash. Although my children made the party, it was in my house. We were 16 people. Nine of our 13 grandchildren came. The others were either in Yeshiva, the Ulpana or our oldest who is in the army.
I told Avraham that I wanted the house decorated with balloons and I had so much fun stringing ribbon across the house, blowing up and hanging the balloons.
My daughters shared the cooking for supper. Meat lasagna, stir fried veggies and we had a variety of salads. Devorah made a brownie birthday cake. Just delicious….I had to taste a small piece, even though I shouldn’t have.
I had a little surprised for my children and grandchildren. I told them that since they were at a birthday party, they needed to get loot bags.
I had a great time buying little gadgets to fill the bags. It has been a very long time since I bought fillers for loot bags. Even the big kids [my children] got a bag filled with goodies and a lottery ticket. Hope they win!
I received really nice gifts. Avraham and my son Eli-Chaim gave me a book by Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau called Out of the Depths. His experiences as a child of the Holocaust.
From Naomi and Devorah and their families I got the most beautiful, wine colour blanket with sleeves called a Snuggy…..It is so big and soft. Devorah said that I could wear it while I type my blogs.
Three of my grandchildren, Neta 4, Chen 7 and Nadav 5 gave me very nice drawings.
My grandson Itamar had fun taking pictures. He snapped and snapped away capturing the entire evening.
All in all it was a great evening that I won’t forget. I have been very blessed all my life. I had great parents a”h and a wonderful childhood.
Growing up, Avraham and I have been married 44 years, we have 3 fabulous children, 2 super sons-in-laws, 13 precious grandchildren and for the past 17 years we have had the privilege of living in Eretz Yisrael!
Life is truly good!
Miriam
Naomi, Devorah
Eli-Chaim and Yair
Avraham and me
Giving out loot bags
Me and my snuggy
Eli-Chaim and me
My grandson Itamar
who took the pictures
