Omicron and On and On…

Click here for additional photos.

As our life proceeded into October and November, we truly began to feel a little more comfortable going into the interior of buildings with our masks on, feeling that we were somewhat protected from Covid as long as most people were wearing masks, that we were double-vaccinated and boosted, and feeling that within a few months the worst of the pandemic would be over so that life would return to some semblance of normal. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Fortunately, we were able to ease up a bit during November and December when the entire family, plus, were here for a visit. Now, with Omicron being even more contagious (if less lethal for vaccinated people) we are again feeling hemmed in and nervous about catching Omicron.

Our relatives in Israel (Adi and Ayal with Mor in the photo) with new babies were dealing well with the situation, until the country shut down again due to Omicron. It looks pretty certain that the tentative plans for Yona’s bat mitzvah there will not be happening any time soon or at all.

Our first foray into a building at Disney was when we received Annual Pass Holder exclusive invitations to experience the new Ratatouille ride in a new Parisian section of France in Epcot. Masks on, we enjoyed this cute, imaginative and quirky ride through Disney’s version of a Parisian kitchen as seen through the eyes of Remy the rat.

Saul continues to carve me little love notes in the morning on our bananas.

We met our friends Phyllis and Larry at Epcot, but thanks to good weather, Saul and I were able to refrain from going into any buildings with them, as we have experienced the rides multiple times. We learned that Phyllis had been an early victim of Covid right at the beginning, probably catching it on her flight back home from their Disney visit in 2020.

Our flora (including some beautiful orchids) gave us much beauty and color in the fall months, but as I write this today, we have experienced a hard frost for the first time in several years, and I hope they will all survive.

On one of our evening walks around Disney Springs, we took a gorgeous sunset panoramic photo, which we had committed to a framed canvas. As the canvas turned out rather dark, we decided to backlight it and use it as a night light in our bedroom.

One afternoon, we met with Hannah, the daughter of Saul’s cousin David, along with her husband, Yossi, and children. Due to Covid, we met outdoors at Abracadabra Nitrogen Ice Cream in Kissimmee. In the 57 years that Saul and I have been together, I have never met David, who lives in the U.S., although I know two of his brothers quite well (Israel and William) and we visited recently when we were in Israel two years ago. I also know a fourth brother, Barry, though I haven’t seen him for many years.

We spent a delightful day in nearby, artsy Mt. Dora with Susan and Ted to wander around the huge outdoor Mt. Dora Craft Fair. Susan and Ted treated us to a yummy brunch at a beautiful, art-filled café there called “1921.” Afterwards, we drove through the Lake Apopka Wildlife preserve, where we spotted and photographed some unique birds and alligators up close. Dinner was in nearby Apopka at a seafood and fish restaurant called the Nauti Lobstah. We chose it because a few days earlier, Ted had professed a love for catfish and that was their specialty.

Our shelves under our kitchen island collapsed, and we replaced them with pull-out shelving that Izzy insisted on installing herself. The system is so much more efficient now.

For October’s Magic Dining, Saul and I had an incredible dinner on the outdoor patio of Jaleo in Disney Springs. I added the wine pairing to the five course meal and it turned out to be such a bargain that we returned with Susan and Ted a few days later to experience it again. The second time, the wines were different, but even more delicious than the first group of five.

Within a few days of its opening, we viewed the new fireworks displays at both Epcot and Magic Kingdom—Harmonious and Enchantment, respectively—for the kickoff of the 18-month long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Disney World’s opening. I think that “Harmonious” is one of the most beautiful displays I have ever seen! In addition, the Epcot sphere puts on a fabulous show of color and music every evening that is just spellbinding.

Yona got braces on her teeth.

Also in October is the Clearwater Beach Chalk Festival. Saul and I made it there this year, but were disappointed to find it a shadow of what it was pre-Covid. This is no reflection on the artists who toiled to create some remarkable works which were doomed to be washed away the following day.

Saul and I continued our 3-mile outdoor walks around the Disney Parks and Disney Springs for many weeks of lovely weather, enjoying the amazing water lillies at Animal Kingdom and outdoor concerts at Epcot and Disney Springs. We were joined by our friend, Jack Bell and his companion, who were staying at a timeshare nearby for a week.

At the end of October, with the help of Jessica and her family. Saul’s sister, Rif, and her husband, Paul, moved down to Florida, just a few miles away, near my brother, Ken, in Champions Gate. One of our first forays was to Clearwater Beach on an absolutely beautiful day in November. We had lunch together at Frenchie’s Rockaway Grill on the beach.

Susan ordered a new sculptural outdoor table and chairs which Izzy and Saul helped to assemble.

Sami had been taking dance at her spectacular campus at New College in Sarasota and we spent a full day there enjoying the locale-specific movements performed by very dedicated dancers with the help of their extremely talented and creative dance teacher and choreographer. Afterwards, we had dinner at a ramen restaurant in Sarasota before heading home.

For Paul’s birthday in November, we had a large box of Boston Cream donuts (his favorite) after dinner from The Donut King. For Rif’s birthday in December, I made her favorite cake, my carrot cake, and we lit up one of three Christmas puddings that Ari had brought from London.

Jessica, Alex, and Yona flew in for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, which came together on the same weekend this year. Ari also flew in from London. The “compound” joined us for candle-lighting and donuts from Donut King, a local institution of many years. Our Thanksgiving feast was buffet-style this year and was totally vegetarian. Izzy and Sami, as is their custom, made a new hanukkiyah for this year’s celebration with votive candles housed in little lanterns adorned with clay snails, mushrooms, and other flora and fauna. Izzy had been producing a great number of pottery items all semester for a pottery course she was taking. She proved to have a great talent and love for the medium with a distinctive style all her own. We used a set of cups she made for an additional hanukkiyah. As Hanukkah progressed, we enjoyed having the whole family together, producing homemade sufganiyot (donuts) to be photographed for my Bubbie’s Kitchen series of e-books, sprinkling our Shabbat table with chocolate Hanukkah gelt, and taking walks with Ari at our nearby timeshare, Summer Bay, which we booked so that he would have quiet time to work remotely, rising at 4:00 a.m. daily for his overseas work schedule.

On the last two nights of Hanukkah, Ari’s friend Chris flew in from London to join us. We lit the final candles of the holiday together. Chris and Ari took advantage of a late moonlight soak in the hot tub. The next morning, Ari, Chris, Saul and I went to dim sum with Chris so that he could experience the American version with carts, and then to Dillard’s Outlet Store to shop for Chris and Ari. Again, after New Year’s, we revisited Dillard’s Outlet so that the girls could look for bat mitzvah clothes. We were very successful in our shopping trek and on Jessica’s recommendation, I got a beautiful designer dress for the occasion as well.

Beginning the following Monday morning after Chris arrived, Ari, Chris, Saul and I began a whirlwind trip of the four Disney Parks so that Chris, who had never been there, could experience as much of them as possible before their scheduled trip to Miami and Key West. We had the most wonderful, warm weather for our forays into the parks and with unbelievable luck, Chris was able to experience most of the rides in all the parks, not to mention trips to some of the hotels where life-size gingerbread houses, carousels, and a giraffe! were displayed. We had a great time together! We had a sumptuous buffet breakfast at our favorite restaurant, Boma in Animal Kingdom Lodge, and, as usual, it did not disappoint. Ari and Chris then headed off to explore Florida further on their trip to Miami and Key West, which, by that point, was a good way to relax after their frenetic days at Disney. Other than the inconvenience of taking Covid tests after a scare with the Omicron virus, and a few days of feeling a bit under the weather while they relaxed, despite their clear tests, they enjoyed the trip very much. Chris, who had started a new job in London, returned to England shortly after they returned.

We were excited to learn that Sami, who only has her thesis to defend before she graduates from New College in May, was hired full-time by Disney to be a concierge in the Yacht Club Resort, which is one of Disney’s luxury hotels. So far, she is enjoying her new job immensely.

Ari’s flight back to London was delayed, and thanks to his prowess at finding great places to vacation, we had a memorable three days, at the end of December, on Treasure Island, adjacent to St. Pete’s Beach, on the west coast of Florida. Our lovely and functional two-bedroom cabin, with a pull-out sofa-bed (Blue Waters), was directly across the street from Sunset Beach, which did not disappoint based on its name. Watching the sunsets each evening from our beach chairs on the sugar-sand beach after a day of soaking in the restorative temperate waters of the Gulf of Mexico, we all felt privileged to be alive and so lucky to have such great weather! Treasure Island is less than an hour-and-a-half’s drive from our home. Rif and Paul met us there and the five of us (Rif and Paul, Ari, Saul and I) had a wonderful time exploring the area’s fun and great restaurants, such as Caddy’s, Chill, and La Croisette.

Izzy helped pressure wash the outdoor furniture before our New Year’s celebration. Ari, true to form, purchased even more fireworks than last year. New Year’s Eve fell on Friday evening this year, so we began our usual Shabbat dinner late in the evening with an assortment of hors d’oeuvres and desserts instead of the usual sit-down meal. For kiddush, I made a round challah decorated with the numbers of a clock to commemorate this special Shabbat. We had an assortment of some of the unique desserts and snacks that Ari purchased in London. The evening weather was temperate for the use of the pool as we watched some of the spectacular fireworks from around the world on television. We were surprised, and greatly impressed by the fireworks that were set off all around our neighborhood on New Year’s Eve. Some of our neighbors must have spent a fortune on fireworks for the occasion. Izzy and Ari had a great time setting off our fireworks. Izzy’s friend, Ansley, joined us for the evening, as well as the usual crew, plus Rif and Paul.

We had a Boxing Day (December 26) brunch, appropriately enough, at Rif and Paul’s new place, after which we continued to help them unload boxes and organize their stuff. They are enjoying retirement immensely and are especially happy sitting on their new lanai enjoying our spectacular weather.

We slept in on New Year’s day while the girls headed off to Elaine’s for breakfast. When they returned, we hung out in the pool in our beautiful Florida weather, sipping mojitos made with fresh mint from my garden and other libations. Yona prepared an adorable snack for Jessica to have in the pool. One of Yona’s other talents (besides baking and food design) is in drawing highly imaginative, manga-type characters in her vast collection of sketchbooks. Dinner that evening was an ample and delicious spread of vegan food that Jess and Ari picked up from Loving Heart in Clermont. We had not been there since Covid began and were very impressed with the quality of the food.

In the next few bonus days we had with Ari because British Airways had allowed him to extend his return flight, we returned to Dillard’s as mentioned previously, had a so-so dinner on the patio of Bahama Breeze, hung out by the pool a few times, and visited the huge Outlet Mall in Orlando. On our visit to the Outlet Mall with Ari we discovered a nearby restaurant that has become our new “find of the season.” Café Tu Tu Tango has an inviting outdoor seating area and a happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. with the most imaginative and varied tapas menu that has something to please everyone. The drinks, at half price, also are expertly prepared, with interesting and varied cocktails. We liked it so much that we returned a few days later with Rif and Paul, and then Saul and I returned with Steve and Jen.

On January 4, we spent an afternoon with Paul and Rifka and Ari at Animal Kingdom, finishing with a delicious meal at the quirky Yellow Dog Eats.

We were saddened both to return Ari to Tampa International for his return flight as Izzy returned Jessica and Yona to Orlando International for their return flight. The one happy note is that Saul and I had a remarkable meal just a minute or two from the airport at Bayside Mall. Aside from being a beautiful, upscale mall, there is a huge avenue of restaurants with outdoor seating available. We opted for Doc B’s and were wowed by the delicious and imaginative choices and presentation of the dishes we ordered. Ari, in turn, had the most amazing long-delayed flight back from Miami International that evening. He had a huge, free buffet in the business-class lounge, his own personal bartender, and a comfy easy chair to relax in during the eight-hour layover, as he was the only one in the lounge. Thankfully, everyone tested negative for Covid after their return flights and did not have to quarantine.

Also in January, Sami had a brief stint as a waitress at a new Ford’s Garage that opened in the nearby newly-constructed town of Hamlin and consequently, we were able to attend two soft openings with free food—one night with Larry and one night with Rif and Paul. We managed to find tables outdoors and semi-outdoors where we were comfortable despite Omicron and the chilly weather.

With what I thought was all the excitement over, I embarked on a course of dental work that I had been delaying. A major molar was extracted, leaving me with practically no bite for two weeks. Then, the temporary kept falling out and needed to be re-glued a few times. Then, I decided to replace missing molars on the other side with implants, so another healing process began.

We had an abbreviated Tu B’Shevat seder with just Rif, Sami, and Izzy in attendance during a Shabbat dinner in January.

The wildlife here in Central Florida never ceases to amaze us, and one day, lounging by the pool, we recorded a large raccoon eating berries from the tree next door. One must be careful coming down our street so as not to hit the giant sandhill cranes which wander about seemingly unconcerned by the traffic.

Just when we began to think that things were beginning to settle down, and we were looking forward to our friend Jennifer spending 10 days in Orlando performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Dr. Phillips Center, we were in for a shocking surprise. Jennifer let us know on the Monday morning after the orchestra arrived from their tour in California, that according to the doctors at Advent Hospital South the previous evening, she was in the process of having a miscarriage. We invited her to come and stay with us so that we could look after her during the ordeal and picked her up from the hotel where the orchestra was lodged. It turned out to be quite an ordeal as she hemorrhadged and we wound up transporting her from Celebration Hospital Emergency Room (which informed her that there might be a three-hour wait to see a doctor) to Advent Hospital South where she was seen by the previous evening’s staff almost immediately. Unfortunately, she took a scary turn for the worse when the routine procedure was done, and I wound up spending the night at the hospital with her to make sure she was okay. Her fiancé, Steve, flew in from London within a few hours, and we put them up for a few more days until the doctors told Jennifer she was well enough to fly home with him. In the midst of all this angst, the drainage system for our entire house backed up so that we could not use any of the sinks or toilets. We were running down to our friend Susan’s house to use her facilities until the plumbers arrived to clear everything.

As of this writing, we have had a hard frost in our area. Much of our beautiful flora has died, including our two blue vanilla banana trees. The front of Izzy’s car was smashed when another teenager, who had not cleared the frost from her windshield ran into her. Fortunately, no injuries. This came on the heels of Sami’s car’s 12-volt battery dying right behind ours in the garage, so that we could not get out for an appointment. Yesterday, on the way to pick up Sami from work and Jessica from the airport, Izzy got such a flat tire that it needed to be replaced.

We’ve taken a philosophical approach to all this. So far, every situation has been handled and all have come through with no major damages. That is saying quite a bit and we all are counting our blessings. I only hope that as Omicron goes on and on, and we do not seem to be getting back to “normal life,” that we will stay upbeat and continue to give thanks that we have the resources and health to handle each emergency and continue to enjoy the privileges we have in our lives. 

50 Golden Years

 

Click here for additional photos.

Since I last wrote in June, and I spoke about “rounding the corner” on the pandemic, Florida has experienced a new surge that has again filled our local hospitals. Thinking that life would be more normal by August, we had decided to go ahead with our plans to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, and accordingly, those coming from far and wide booked their non-cancellable flights and looked forward to joining us. All totaled, we were 25 double-vaccinated souls plus the two (also double-vaxxed) wonderful guys, Josh and Tyler, from The Vegetable Butchers who catered our party and did a masterful job with both taste and presentation. Needless to say, I breathed a great sigh of relief after a week had gone by that no one in attendance had caught the virus.

Back in June, our garden was really flourishing, and for a while, at least, we were holding fast to our determination to spend an hour a day in the relative cool of the morning tending it. We were rewarded with an assortment of colorful tomatoes, including our favorite—Atomic tomatoes. Our passion flowers, which we planted for the flowers, began to give us (unexpectedly) delicious fruit as well. Our collection of orchids, which I never had any luck raising up north, reward us constantly with a showy display. 

We recently resumed our thrice-weekly walks at Disney, sticking for months to our plan to remain outdoors at all times. We returned to a Disney quite different from the one we had known and loved until the pandemic ended our spontaneous and carefree forays into fantasy land. While the crowds have diminished, all the little flourishes have disappeared. For instance, at Animal Kingdom, Da Vine is gone, as are the Caribbean Dance Party troupe, the amazing harpist that performed on the little stage next to the gift shop, and the “Rivers of Light” show. A new walkway opened, however, so we were able to get close up to the “Tree of Life” in an area we had never seen before. The whole center of Epcot is completely blocked off from view while the park undergoes a complete refurbishment. Yesterday, though, as annual passholders, we donned our masks and got to preview the new Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure ride in the beautifully expanded new section of “Paris.” It was very cute and even suitable for young children. Hollywood Studios, for all its Star Wars hype and new rides, is a shadow of its former self, lacking all the kitschy outdoor antics, with many attractions closed, and with large sections under renovation as well. The Magic Kingdom is difficult to access, so we usually don’t walk there. We prefer not to be in the enclosed space of the Monorail, and the hotels nearby now require proof of reservations at their restaurants in order to park and take the friendship boats there. Getting on the large boats from the general parking lot area requires a lengthy walk which could be problematic on a rainy day. Basically, it is our opinion that Disney lost a lot of its magic when it furloughed its long-time, uniquely talented, cast members, including its chefs. To date, many have not returned.

Before Yona’s arrival for Camp Bubbie and Saba, I finally found bed ensembles which I loved, and (with her approval) we replaced the sheets, duvets and pillowcases with new, colorful, reversible quilts and cute new accent pillows. The previous ones dated back at least 15 years to when Sami and Izzy were tots.

Our newly-born cousins in Israel continue to flourish and we have kept in touch with their parents and other Israeli cousins since our trip there in October/November of 2019. We also met up at Epcot with our local friend, Carly, whose four kids, Ella, Harrison, Henderson, and Emma, we had not seen for almost two years. During the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot, we sampled some great vegan dishes (Impossible Sausage and Kale Soup; Grilled Street Corn on the Cob with Savory Garlic Spread; Boneless Impossible Korean Short Rib with Cilantro Lime Rice, Danmuji Slaw, and Kimchee Mayo; Lavender Pot de Créme with Blueberry Cake, Pink Peppercorn and Lime Whipped Cream; Spicy Kenyan Vegan Corn and White Beans with Pigeon Peas, Quinoa & Ancient Grains Medley and Kachumbari Slaw) at Epcot and met and sampled a few with our friends from up north, Phyllis and Larry. Larry was kind enough to pick up the check when we dined outdoors together at Epcot’s Rose and Crown restaurant, which gave us front-row seats for the “Epcot Forever” fireworks display. Rose and Crown now has five delicious vegan entrees in addition to their regular menu.

We got the best possible news about what the doctors thought was an aneurism in Saul’s stomach. We had been hoping that it was a small one that would not require surgery, and learned, after a CT scan that it didn’t exist at all! It was a mistake on the first ultrasound!

One of the great pleasures of living here is to wake up to the fairly frequent, gentle puffing sound of colorful, hot air balloons flying directly overhead and run out through our bedroom sliders to the pool deck to see them floating by overhead in the beautiful, bright blue Florida sky.

My Zoom violin lessons continue with our lovely friend, Jennifer, who is a principal violinist for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. If only my talents lived up to hers as a superb teacher! I do get a certain thrill, despite my lacking talent, every time I pick up my father’s beloved violin.

On a sunset walk through Disney Springs one evening, we listened to some great street entertainers (capturing the amphibious vintage cars returning to the adjacent dock) and took an absolutely brilliant panoramic photo of the sunset along the lagoon walkway which we had made into a canvas artwork for our bedroom.

Hearing that there was a delicious-sounding, prix-fixe, three-course vegan meal at a new restaurant opening in the Caribbean Beach Resort at Disney (Sebastian’s Bistro), we went to great lengths to procure reservations. While our meal was delicious, imaginative, and quite a bargain by Disney standards, the non-vegan barbecue of our dinner partners, Larry, Susan, and Ted was just ho-hum. Susan and Ted were kind enough to pick up the check. This particular evening was our first foray since Covid 19 into an indoor restaurant, and while the ceiling was enormously high and the tables socially-distanced, we were a little appalled that our servers did not wear masks.

One of our new go-to, take-out, food purveyors is Mr. Sushi Express in Old Town, Kissimee. This nearby, honky-tonk atmosphere, amusement complex is great for a stroll. The sushi, which is incredibly reasonable, is made by machine, and fairly flies out the door as it is made. People line up out the door to make their orders and pick up. They have a very large vegan sushi selection as well as a very large and imaginative selection of regular sushi.

As I wrote at the beginning of this post, our big event this summer was our 50th Wedding Anniversary party. We also celebrated Jessica and Alex’s 25th Wedding Anniversary, Rif and Paul’s 45th Wedding Anniversary, Sami’s 21st Birthday, and Beth’s 50th Birthday. Ari, after taking a required Covid P.C.R. test, flew in several days ahead. We went with him to the airport to pick up Rif and Paul from New Jersey. Jess flew in from New Jersey the previous week and was working remotely from Elaine’s home. Alex flew down a few days before and drove back after the party with Inky (their dog), who had been residing with Elaine for most of the summer so that Jess and Alex could visit his sister, Naomi and her family in California, and take a vacation in Williamsburg during the summer. Yona traveled back with him ending this year’s restrictive (but full of delicious Yona-made baked goods) Camp Bubbie and Saba. Ari left the following week, happily on an almost empty airplane. He had to take two more P.C.R. tests, one 48 hours before boarding the airplane, and one within 24 hours of arriving in London. Thank God no one caught Covid, or the entire celebration would have turned into a very expensive nightmare. Jess stayed on for a few more days so that she and Izzy could visit a college in St. Louis that they had been considering. They didn’t like it. After the St. Louis trip, Izzy drove Jess to Tampa Airport for her return flight home, while we simultaneously returned Rif and Paul to Orlando Airport.

To get back to the party itself, suffice it to say that it went beyond our wildest imagination. We found the caterers, Josh and Tyler, The Vegetable Butchers, on-line, by doing a lot of research over several months. We had originally considered a more local caterer, Dharma Southern Kitchen, also vegan. We had sampled their wonderful food by doing take-out and eating in a nearby playground/park with picnic tables on good-weather days. But every attempt we made to contact the catering wing of the restaurant had failed, probably because everything party-related has become sketchy in Covid times. We were successful in contacting The Vegetable Butchers, who are located near Daytona Beach, about an hour and a half away. They were absolutely a joy to deal with! We were a bit nervous, though, as we had never personally tasted their food and they pooh-poohed our efforts to send them a deposit prior to the party. 

Since Saul and I were the only vegans in attendance, I asked Josh and Tyler if they would mind my making celebratory cakes for the occasion, and they had no objections whatever. I had carefully saved the ornaments from my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration, as well as their 25th, and using them to decorate the cakes I made for this celebration was particularly meaningful for me. I wanted a cake for each milestone we were celebrating in an assortment of flavors. My family pointed out, several times, that this was way too much cake for the 25 or so people who would be in attendance. My solution was to order the cutest windowed wedding cake boxes so that everyone would have as much cake as they wanted to take home. (I still have two layers of cake in the freezer, even so.) The cakes were: sour cream pound cake with buttercream icing, ultimate carrot cake with butter pecan filling and cream cheese icing, chocolate medallion cake with mocha icing, Yona Rae coconut cake with cream cheese icing, and Ghirardelli white chocolate cake with white chocolate icing.  

Since Josh and Tyler don’t do bars, I recruited our neighbor, Gary, who has a frozen margarita machine, to oversee the drinks. Saul and I made sure the bar was well stocked and ordered corn-based, compostable drinking cups in various sizes, and compostable coffee cups as well. We got a new Nespresso coffee machine that was a great price at Bed, Bath and Beyond, and a whole assortment of recyclable coffee pods to go with it, but no one drank a single cup of coffee at the party. Gary showed up for the party early, surprising us with a custom-made banner that included photos he had gleaned from our Facebook pages—our favorite wedding picture and one that was taken by Ari this past December while we were taking a walk at Summer Bay. He and Jessica found a clever way to hang it over our cake table that greeted our guests as they came in the front door. 

The food was absolutely delicious and our meat-eating neighbors could not believe the sandwiches were not meat. The guys make their own seitan from scratch! They even prepared my Red Curry Vegan Shrimp from my recipe blog that I requested (if they were able). No one could believe the shrimp weren’t “real” either. They had made a special trip into Orlando from Daytona Beach to source the vegan shrimp from Golden Sparkling supermarket where I purchase it. The food was gorgeously and thoughtfully presented in individual servings so that the spread of germs would be minimized. The guys, themselves, were as pleasant and informative to our guests as anyone could ask. Everything was extremely well-organized, kept clean throughout the length of the party, and when they left, everything was spotless. As I said at the beginning, it was beyond anything we dared to imagine.

Jessica has a really incredible talent for composing poetry that captures the essence of everyone’s quirks, foibles, life experiences, etc. This occasion was no exception. She composed a poem that had us both laughing, and crying with emotion—again, creating a memory par excellence! Saul and I are so lucky that we have such talented and caring children and grandchildren and that we have lived to see such a milestone in our life! We truly have had golden years together!

Once the long-anticipated party was over, I began work on Yona’s bat mitzvah invitation painting as I had done for her other two sisters. I think that Yona has the most unfortunate parashah in the whole Torah! Thank goodness I was able to find one upbeat line that I could make the focus of the painting, which, in translation, reads: “He shall be like a tree planted by waters…” Eventually, the painting will be professionally photographed and digitized so that the details of the invitation can be digitally added to the center. Once the idea struck, the whole thing was created, start to finish, in two days. The idea even lent itself to Yona’s love of trees, frogs, and turtles.

In the past few weeks, my brother, Ken, treated us to dinner at the Rose and Crown (where we again were treated to Epcot’s amazing fireworks display) to celebrate our actual anniversary on September 2. On September 2 itself, Susan and Ted made dinner reservations for us and treated us at the newly-reopened (and our favorite restaurant) Boma, at Jambo House in Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney. It is operating at 30 to 50 percent capacity at the moment and the tables are socially-distanced. The staff is all masked, and one must wear a mask to go up to the buffet and at all times, except when seated at the table eating. Other than the necessary inconvenience of wearing the mask, the food, ambiance, and waitstaff, were as excellent as ever, especially our waitress, Vivian, who made our “Happily Ever After” 50th anniversary day truly special.

As I write this, we are between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Our two days of Rosh Hashanah Zoom services and lunches with friends and family were a joy. We can only hope that we all will be written in the book of life for another wonderful and “beyond golden” year together!

Rounding the Corner and Re-Imagining the Future

 

Click here to view additional photos.

“Rounding the corner” is how most of the news media I have been watching has characterized this phase of the Covid 19 Pandemic. About two weeks ago, Saul and I decided it was time to renew our Annual Passes to Disney World which expired last August (we had not attended since the beginning of March 2020). Our decision was based on the fact that the C.D.C. issued new guidelines, unexpectedly, saying that people who had been fully vaccinated would no longer need to wear a mask in outdoor situations, and, indeed, also no longer indoors if everyone indoors has received a full vaccination. While we don’t trust that everyone indoors has been so vaccinated (and therefore we continue to wear masks indoors), we felt relatively comfortable outdoors once Disney removed the mandate for masking outdoors and requiring everyone’s temperature to be taken as they enter the parks. We have greatly missed giving vent to our inclination to wander the parks in the evening, putting in, usually, two to three-and-a-half miles each time. Our walks around the neighborhood for the last year are just not the same. Unfortunately, the new Disney requirement that a park be reserved in advance has put quite a crimp in our impulsive, spur-of-the-moment style. In the last week or two, we have found that very little is available for reservation. We are hoping the availability improves, or that Disney will soon drop that requirement also.

As my last blog post ended, we were preparing for Passover 2021. Jessica, Izzy and Yona were flying down on an unbelievably cheap deal from Frontier Airlines. Alex could not join us physically because he would not have had enough time to quarantine on his return to the responsibility of overseeing a large, in-person, nursery school. The prep was a lot easier this year (except the cleaning and transferring part) because we could shop at the synagogue-adjacent Winn-Dixie (that carries a full line of Passover goods) in person this year. It was our first foray into an actual store since the previous March. We were gratified to find everything we needed, including a very large, fresh horseradish root. It obliged us in other ways a few days after use by sprouting a healthy contingent of green leaves. It is now ensconced in a large planter, sending up gigantic leaves, and awaiting next year’s seder. This year’s seder’s attendees, thanks to the wonders of Zoom, were: Alex, Ari, Rifka; Matt, Naomi, Talia, and Ava; Aaron, Stacey, Jacob, Lilly, and Zach; and in person: Saul, Marilyn, Jessica, Sami, Izzy, Yona, Kenny, Elaine, Larry S., Susan and Ted. Our vegetarian menu consisted of: Guacamole, Hummus, Steamed Mini Potatoes, Vegetable Sushi, Celery Sticks, Carrot Sticks, Haroset, Horseradish, Salt Water, Roasted Egg, Beet/Zroah, Deviled Eggs, Chickenless Chicken Soup, Matzoh Balls, Homemade Passover Noodles, Vegan Gefilte “Fish” with Horseradish and Beets/Hrain, Cod and Passover-Certified Surimi Lamaize, Vegan Shepherds Pie (Sherpa’s Pie) with Chestnuts and Butternut Squash, Jackfruit Chili, Wild Mushroom and Eggplant Vegan “Meatballs” with Chickpea Pasta, Marinated Salad, Israeli Salad, Gezer Hai, Passover Potato Knishes, Steamed Cauliflower, Apricot Sweet Potatoes, Brown Basmati and Black Wild Rice, Matzoh-Apple Kugel, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Assorted Sorbets (Blood Orange, Strawberry, Lemon, Mango), and Carob Mousse Crepes with Vanilla Custard Sauce. The first seder fell on a Saturday night this year, which is problematic, because technically, there is no cooking allowed on Saturday until sundown. There was also much debate this year about what to use to make a motzi the previous Friday evening. It is after the burning of hametz, so technically, no challah, but also falls within the time period when one may not eat matzoh until the first taste at the seder. Most rabbis recommended using egg matzoh, but luckily, none in our group have a problem with gluten (which was a whole other problem for some this year). Susan was very gracious in inviting us all for Friday evening Shabbat dinner, at which she prepared a gorgeous and delicious vegan buffet that conformed to our esoteric needs. Kudos to her for meeting this considerable challenge in such a gracious and delectable way! Our seder table was enhanced by beautiful flower arrangements from Ari and Elaine. Towards the end of the holiday, I made Passover Rolls, and Yona made meringue frogs with some of the leftover egg whites.

Ari’s move from his high rise flat in Canary Wharf to a four-story, two bedroom, two bath, house near Paddington went pretty much without a hitch, except for some plumbing problems, which, thank God, the owner was very diligent to fix.

At the end of Passover, I did something I have never done before. I prepared a Mimouna celebration, as is done in Sephardic communities (especially in Morocco), by making (very successfully) Mofleta, the signature dish of this celebration. The table setting and symbolism are quite beautiful and it was very gratifying and meaningful, not to mention delicious, to celebrate in this way. Another new tradition was baking a “shlissel” challah (key-shaped) on the first Shabbat following Passover.

After Passover, Saul and I ventured forth to shop at Lotte, a huge Asian warehouse-type supermarket and Golden Sparkling, another Asian supermarket, to get all the items we had been missing during the pandemic. Lotte and Golden Sparkling did not have a delivery or curbside pickup service during the pandemic.

In the period after Passover, our friends, the Enders, Murvin and Linda, made their yearly trek to Orlando. Last year was, for obvious reasons, an exception. Since we no longer had active Disney Annual Passes, we found other attractions around Orlando and St. Petersburg to enjoy with them. We visited the Morse Museum, which graciously honored our annual passes that we had purchased the previous year, a glass museum that houses one of the largest collections of Tiffany glass, including a chapel made of glass. Afterward, we had lunch at 4 Rivers Barbecue, which has delicious vegan Beyond Meat burnt ends and wonderful sides in addition to their regular barbecue. A few days later, we trekked to St. Petersburg to view the glass collection at the Imagine Museum. The displays were eye-popping and diverse, revealing the kaleidoscope that is the human imagination. We each took a picture at the end of a long tunnel of glass. We had lunch, outdoors, at a charming waterfront bistro called “Fresco’s.”

Sadly, Jessica and Yona all too soon returned to New Jersey via Tampa Airport. As the airport is only a short drive from Clearwater Beach, one of my favorite beaches in the whole world, Saul and I took the opportunity to spend a few blissful hours there after dropping them off for their flight. We hadn’t been to the beach in a few years because of the pandemic and before that, red tide. Recently, the beach had been the site of controversial crowds of spring break party goers that were celebrating en masse and mask-less that had to be dispersed by police. The day we visited, the weather was perfect, the water warm, the beaches uncrowded and sparkling. We were lucky to get the parking spot closest to Frenchie’s Rockaway Grille on the beach and, after a very short wait, had the most lovely table outdoors so we could dine with our toes in the sand.

As evidenced by the many photos of our garden, fruit trees, and orchids, which are all thriving, we can’t escape the daily evidence that, despite the pandemic, we are living in paradise. We decided to take a hand in our gardening, almost daily, for an hour a day to get more exercise and our small investment of time has rewarded us handsomely. Izzy, as well, was bitten by the gardening bug, but on a smaller scale. After discovering the half-price rack of dying plants at Lowe’s, she came home regularly with forlorn-looking plants that she nursed back to health in short order. Her bedroom now looks like the page in “Where the Wild Things Are” where it says “That very night, in Max’s room, a forest grew…” 

During May, we celebrated a number of birthdays, for which I made cakes: our friend, Susan, for whom I made a Texas Sheet Cake; our neighbor Gary, a Chocolate Medallion Cake; and our niece, Haley, who requested a Cinnabon-type cake. I made two batches of my potato-dough cinnamon buns, baked them in layer cake pans, and frosted them with cream cheese icing. As the peaches from our tree became ripe, we harvested them and I made peach jam with the not so beautiful ones. As of this writing, sadly, the last of the fresh ones have been eaten and we will have to wait for next year’s crop to enjoy them again. Izzy perched precariously on the top rung of the ladder to prevent her Saba from climbing to reach the highest ones on the tree. During May, we were able to purchase beautiful mangoes for 39¢ apiece, so while I was canning peaches, I also made mango jam with the surfeit of mangoes I had purchased. I also love the half-price rack at Lowe’s and bought a bush of my favorite flowers—gardenias. My love dates back to the time of Jessica’s birth when friends who were visiting at the time (Ed and Rose St. Onge) bought me a gardenia tree to celebrate her birth. I used to sit next to it, inhaling its fragrance while I was nursing my daughter.

Saul’s cousin, Adi, whose wedding we had attended with his sister in Israel back in October 2019, gave birth to a beautiful little boy. Sadly, Adi’s mother, Sylvia, died at the beginning of the pandemic and never got to see her beautiful little grandson.

One of the small number of benefits of the pandemic was getting to attend my regular Thursday morning Bible study classes on Zoom. Up until I moved to Florida, I had attended regularly for almost 20 years. Our final Zoom class of this school year ended about three weeks ago and we all got a screen shot of the attendees.

Since the C.D.C. lifted the mask requirements for being outdoors, we took the girls for our first dinner at a restaurant together in over a year. We got an outdoor table at “Ford’s Garage” in Margaritaville and had a lovely evening.

In the last few days, Saul and I have resumed our walks in the Disney Parks when we can get reservations. We were pleased to discover that The Grand Floridian Hotel has a newly-paved and refurbished walkway to the Magic Kingdom. We had a pleasant vegan lunch outdoors at the Gasparilla Island Grill, which is now entirely different due to the pandemic, before embarking on our newly discovered route to the Magic Kingdom. Like Disney, we are now tasked with “Re-Imagining the Future.”

A Light at the End of the Horizon

Click here for additional photos.

The photo above is a screen shot from the 39th floor in Ari’s soon-to-be-vacated flat in London. He has been quarantining with this beautiful view for almost a year and a half now, with the exception of about a month spent here with us in Florida, as explained in my previous blog post. Last March, he, Jessica, and Sami, unexpectedly, had to high-tail it home from Taiwan where Sami had just begun a year abroad program a few months earlier because all travel was being curtailed due to the pandemic. The flat is “soon-to-be-vacated” because just about everything has changed in the last year since the pandemic began. This beautiful flat, with a gorgeous view of the river Thames and the city of London became claustrophobic after a few months of serious lockdown. Everyone began to long for outdoor spaces that could be accessed without taking the risk of contaminated elevators, hallways, and surfaces. Ari’s new home will be in a lovely mews house on a secluded cobblestone street with access to one of the most beautiful parks in London. Now that he has his new job that is completely remote at EPIQ, he will be in a dedicated office space at home, instead of a makeshift setup in his dining/living room area. I believe the only thing he will miss is this view.

By comparison, the pandemic has not been terribly hard on us here in Florida. We haven’t been cooped up, as many have, by bad weather, tight quarters, or small spaces. And now, contrary to the inefficiency with which Florida usually runs, (drum roll please!) the state has been the model of efficiency in rolling out the vaccine. Saul and I (as of last month!) have had both our shots of the Pfizer vaccine with practically no hassle. We went online, booked two appointments together, and were given a QR code to photograph with our phones. Pulling into the Orlando Convention Center at the appointed time (directed very efficiently by newly-erected road signage) our codes were checked as we entered and we snaked around for about 20 minutes. Entering the under-building garage, our codes were read by scanning guns, we were directed to lines depending on whether we were receiving shot 1 or 2, and a sticker was printed out and affixed to our clothing. Then we were directed to one of ten stations administering the vaccine. Our codes were again scanned, we were asked which arm we preferred to have the shot in, we got our shot, a super-hero band-aid, and even a lollipop! Then, we were directed to a parking lot outside where we were told to flash our emergency lights and lean on the horn if there was any problem that developed. After waiting the suggested 15 minutes, we left, our codes again checked by a monitor to make sure we had waited the appointed amount of time. On our second shot, handled the same way as the first, we were given a packet of surgical masks to take home. We feel incredibly lucky! In addition, Jessica and Alex (by virtue of working in schools) have now received both shots. Ari, in keeping with England’s policy has received his first, then Sami got her first, the next scheduled for April 8.

Since everyone left in January, we have been continuing with our year-long pandemic schedule with me preoccupied with my blogs (I’m very proud that I got my book, "Bubbie’s Kitchen” online and it is better than ever before), Saul and Sami with remotely teaching Religious School, and Sami taking her classes at New College remotely. Saul and I take walks around the neighborhood, during which we often see some interesting wildlife and do laps in our pool, weather permitting. I also have been continuing with my violin lessons, taught remotely by the remarkable Jennifer Christie from her quarantined quarters in London. One light at the end of the horizon is that Jennifer has been called back to socially-distanced rehearsals with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. Millions of people in the U.K. have already received their vaccinations! We are also excited because Jennifer and her boyfriend, Steve, got engaged on Valentine’s day. Soon, they may actually be able to schedule a wedding!

Last year, the day of my birthday was a normal and lovely celebration that began with our favorite breakfast buffet at Boma in Animal Kingdom Lodge, followed by an incredible dinner prepared by our friend Susan, who, with her husband, Ted, moved here at our and her brother’s urging from Chicago a few year’s ago. That was a Thursday evening. The following day, I prepared Shabbat dinner for our little havurah, which was our custom, and announced that because of concerns about gatherings due to the pandemic, I would be suspending our weekly dinners until further notice. Little did we all suspect that the next regular Friday night dinner (at which we celebrated my birthday) would be exactly one year later! It was such a joy to be able to hug and kiss one another after lighting the Shabbat candles as we all have now had our vaccinations!

We had a very scaled-back Tu B’Shevat seder back in January and baked the usual hamantaschen to put into mishloach manot packages for Purim in February. All our religious services, except one, have been on Zoom. Izzy read the Megillah back in New Jersey, and we were pleased to be able to Zoom in to their services as well as our own. We braved attending the actual, physical synagogue on a Saturday morning, after our first vaccination, to attend the adult bat mitzvah of our new friend, Jodie, whom we met on Zoom this year attending classes and services. It was our first, in person, meeting. The synagogue had opened up the entire sanctuary, and with its high ceilings, and a dozen masked socially-distanced congregants, we felt pretty secure.

Another benefit of Zooming during the pandemic has been to be able to rejoin a Bible class that I attended for 20 years, before moving to Florida, taught by my good friend, Faith. At its inception, there were some Thursday mornings when only I showed up and we had a private session. As the years went by, news traveled, and now the class has grown to some 30 or 40 members, many of whom I hadn’t seen in almost eight years. Two weeks ago, we finished studying the Five Books of Moses and have gone on to study the book of Joshua. We all celebrated together online with a treat of our choice.

If you check out the photos above, you will see that we have been greatly enjoying our Florida gardens. Our mango, citrus, avocado and peach trees are loaded with developing fruit. Susan and Ted had planted Meyer lemon trees. The fruit matured last month and we produced the most delicious Meyer lemon, Ginger and Cardamom cookies with the bounty. I also ordered new Tommy Bahama solar lights from Costco to go around our pool screens and they are even better than we imagined at night, reflecting off our pool. Haley and Eric, who couldn’t join us for my 2021 birthday dinner, invited us to the palatial home they rented a few miles away during the pandemic. Haley, who is a brilliant cook, made a remarkable birthday dinner for me that checked all the boxes for vegan and oil free and was absolutely stunning and delicious. The one note that is not bright for me is that they are moving back to Philadelphia in May. But having gotten a several months taste of Florida life, we all hope they will become “snow birds” in the future.

As I write this, we are about to begin our preparations for this year’s Passover seder. Jess and the girls are flying down in a few days and will be here for an indefinite period of time as Yona will be able to finish this school year remotely. On the horizon, right now, it looks as though schools will be able to resume in September, Disney World will begin to get back to its usual operations, hiring back its cast members that have been furloughed, it will no longer be a danger to go into restaurants and shops, Saul and I will be able to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary, Jessica and Alex’s twenty-fifth, and Sami’s 21st birthday in August, and everyone will be able to travel and enjoy each other as they have in the past. May the worst be over as of this writing so that we may enjoy the light on the horizon with a greater appreciation and more peace in the world.

Keeping Busy and Counting Our Blessings

Click here for additional photos.

So we have now almost come up on a year since our lives have changed drastically. Our last hurrah of 2020 was the celebration of my 70th birthday. We went to Boma at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for an early reservation at one of our favorite buffet breakfasts of all time. In the evening, Susan made an absolutely wonderful dinner in my honor and we schmoozed the hours away. The next day, I made us all Shabbat dinner and, at the end, announced that, for the first time in my life, I was cancelling our regular Friday night dinners because we were beginning to feel that it was no longer safe to meet and hug, kiss, or socialize in any way. That marked the beginning of our self-isolation on March 6, 2020, and since then, Saul and I have practically not left the house. Believe it or not, I consider all this a great blessing. I was lucky to be able to celebrate my milestone birthday before all the grief set in. We are self-isolating in paradise—both in terms of the weather here in Florida, and the beauty of our spacious home with private swimming pool and hot tub. In addition, we are retired, living on a teacher’s pension and Social Security, and have the luxury of not having to worry about being exposed on the job. Neither do we have to worry about losing a job.

Our children, also, have the luxury of good jobs that allow them to work remotely, permanently. Our grandchildren have been attending their classes remotely as well. We are so blessed, I hardly know how to deal with it.

As usual, there are not enough hours in the day for me. I have been anything but bored. This “so-called” down time has been an unusually productive time for me. These are the activities that take up most of my day:

I am proud to announce that I finally did finish putting my “Bubbie’s Kitchen” book up on-line and I am so pleased with the results. The wonders of blogging allowed me many liberties that were non-existent at the time I wrote the book 35 years ago. I was able to include color photos of the dishes in the book, as well as links to related photos of step-by-step processes, videos, links to outside resources, and internal links within the book so that one only need click on a recipe in the Table of Contents to be taken directly to the desired recipe. No more shuffling through pages! During the preparation, I had the opportunity to revisit and update dishes that I hadn’t prepared in many, many years; such as the Caramel Apples, Apple Honey Cake, Tzimmes, Kreplach, and Kugels. In addition, the original book was envisioned as one of six I was planning to write. To that end, I had researched and prepared quite a few chapters from the other books. My cooking classes at Temple Sinai allowed me to test a number of them with real students in real time. A lot of my time, now, is spent working to get the other five books on-line, which involves test cooking and photographing. I love it! Some of the lessons are accessible now by clicking in the right margin of the Bubbie’s Kitchen blog. I am publishing them piecemeal as I complete each one.

When Haley and Erik moved temporarily to Florida, they brought me my father’s violin, which my brother had paid to refurbish for his granddaughter, who had never used it. After a 55-year hiatus, I have begun taking Zoom violin lessons from Jennifer Christie, a friend of the family, who lives in London and plays second violin for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra there. Unfortunately, the Orchestra has not had many venues this year, despite taking many precautions to avoid Covid, and has shut down completely now that the lockdown in England has been even more strictly enforced. My heart goes out to musicians who are truly suffering from their inability to make beautiful music together. Jennifer is an absolute delight as a a teacher, and unlike my time as a child when I did everything I could to avoid practicing, I am making an effort to practice every day so as not to disappoint her or myself. The instrument is beginning to feel more comfortable as time wears on.

A large part of my day is spent putting up Daily Love Letters from WWII. As of this writing, I have posted 264 days‘ worth of letters spanning the years from 1941 to, at present, 1944. Without the time afforded to me by this pandemic, those letters would have continued to languish in their boxes as they have for 75 years. Each day, when I awaken, I am excited to see what my parents and their friends and relatives are up to. I have learned so much about them and the rest of the family that I never knew. It has been a revelation!

When the weather is nice, as it often is in Florida, we swim, garden, and go for long walks in the sunshine.

After a hiatus of eight years, we were able to resume taking weekly, Thursday morning Bible classes with Faith Rubin, in Dresher, Pennsylvania. It was a joy to reconnect with friends we hadn’t seen in many years and continue an activity that had been a part of my life for almost 20 years prior.

We also attend Zoom Saturday morning services at our synagogue here in Orlando, SOJC; attend classes and discussions with our Rabbi Orrin Krublit; and spend a few moments with fellow congregants on Saturday nights at Havdallah services. We live about 45 minutes from our shul and we can be so much more connected this way, without the grueling drive at night.

Saul and Sami are team teaching religious school classes on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The girls often keep their sanity by playing “Animal Crossing” on Sami’s “Switch.” They even visited the “island” of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during the election campaign.

To get back to the specifics of the time that has elapsed since my last post, we all made arrangements for Jess, Yona and Ari to visit for at least a month from just before Thanksgiving to New Years. This turned out to be a complicated logistical nightmare considering the necessity to quarantine from each other because of possible exposure on the flights here. In the end, it all worked out beautifully. Saul and I are owners at a timeshare resort called Summer Bay, which is a mere two miles away. We have accumulated a zillion points because no one has or was planning any vacations in the past year, or for the foreseeable future, for that matter. We used our points to book an apartment there for the purpose of quarantining for two weeks beginning November 24. Ari was trying to arrange his flight for then, but England locked down and did not allow traveling until December 4. In the meantime, Jessica flew down then with Yona, Izzy joined them at the resort, and the three of them quarantined at the timeshare for ten days. They came here frequently, but we social-distanced on the lanai until their quarantine period was over. Then, Izzy and Yona moved back in here and Jessica moved in with her mother-in-law, Elaine, about 45 minutes away. By then, we had managed to book another two weeks at Summer Bay so that Ari could quarantine there. We picked him up at the airport in the beginning of December in two cars, gave him one to drive to Summer Bay and the rest of us returned home in the other. Ari also visited us frequently during his quarantine, but again, we socially distanced on the lanai until he was cleared also. We were able to book the apartment at Summer Bay all the way to December 31, so Ari had his own apartment, regardless of quarantine, for almost the entire length of his visit.

Our vegetarian Thanksgiving meal was a wonder! We had Chicken-less Chicken Soup with Whole Wheat Matzoh Balls, Hummus and Baba Ganoush with assorted chips, Balsamic Roasted Vegetables, Vegan Dried Fruit-Stuffed “Turkey” Breast with Wild Mushroom Gravy, Maple-Glazed Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts and Pomegranate Seeds, Pickles, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, Pumpkin Seed-Praline Pumpkin Pie (made with the flesh from Sami’s Halloween-decorated pumpkin), Marinated Salad, and Fresh Cranberry Relish. The Four Rivers Smokehouse provided us with Vegan Beyond Burnt Ends, Fried Okra, Coleslaw, and Jalapeno Cornbread. Our lovely neighbor, Julia, across the street, contributed not one, but two Sweet Potato Pies. We had quite a feast with enough left over for a carefree Shabbat dinner the following evening. As if all this bounty wasn’t enough, Yona (who loves to bake) made cinnamon rolls over the weekend.

Jess and Izzy undertook a long journey at the beginning of December. They drove to visit Life University, which is Izzy’s first choice for college, outside of Atlanta, Georgia. The drive took about 6-1/2 hours. They spent the night in Atlanta in an unused in-law suite in the basement of their friends’ home (The Dorsches). They loaded their bedding into the washer the next morning, waved to their friends from a distance, and went on a very physically grueling, but extremely gratifying tour of the college. The college was everything they had hoped for and beyond. Unfortunately, the stress of the entire excursion took a toll on Jessica and she developed a mild case of Shingles on the way back. It took several days before we all realized that she had something beyond a rash or insect bite, and a doctor diagnosed her over Zoom. Luckily, Saul and I, after several years of trying, received our Shingles shots at the beginning of this past year, just before Covid struck, and luckily, it was a mild case for Jessica.

Jess and Alex bought Saul a Soda-Stream for Chanukah. Our hot water heater broke, but, in a stroke of unbelievable luck, Susan had a plumber on-site that morning to install a Japanese toilet (a long, complicated story) and Saul nabbed him an hour later to fix our heater. He had the parts on his truck. We dodged a big bullet. 

My cousin, Alan, posted on Facebook that his mother died peacefully during December. Aunt Ruth was my mother’s brother’s wife. She was in her mid-90s and the oldest member of our family.

Ari had very little problem flying in until he reached Miami, one of only 13 airports in the U.S.A. that accepts international flights. There, social distancing was non-existent, and he felt very unsafe.

As Chanukah approached, Jessica, who has a religious school Zoom class, had ordered supplies to be mailed to her students families so that they could do a craft project for Chanukah together online. When the supplies arrived here, the girls sat down to separate and package the kits to be mailed. The project miraculously, arrived just in time for Chanukah and was a great success. Yona and Izzy made Pumpkin-Filled Dreidel Cookies with Hebrew-letter cookie cutters Jessica ordered from Amazon Prime. Every year, it is a family tradition for the girls to make their own Chanukiah. With a quick, masked, and socially-distanced trip to Michael’s, they picked up the supplies to make what I think is the best, most imaginative, and most beautiful Chanukiah I have ever seen from clear Christmas ornaments, Femo, and paper folded into many colored lucky stars.

Ari, sun-deprived in London, spent many hours basking in the sunshine here, going for long walks around the grounds at Summer Bay, for which we joined him on a few occasions, and checking out the trails in some of our local parks. He also spent a lot of time on the lanai and in the hot tub. Our neighbor, Julia, gave us a big bag of freshly-picked pecans from her children’s trees. Ari and Izzy found it very therapeutic to spend a few hours shelling them all. I used them to make a quantity of mini-pecan pies, which I then shared with Julia and her husband, Gus. Sami’s therapy is making gorgeous and delicious pleated vegetarian dumplings and various other Asian specialties such as tteokbokki, taiyaki, sushi, summer rolls, etc. We take a lot of joy from our food! One morning, we had a family brunch, for which I prepared banana pancakes. Susan gave Saul a gigantic Chanukah nightgown as a gift. It fit perfectly! She also gave us a delicious, crunchy, whole wheat boule of bread that she bakes. At the beginning of Chanukah, Ari watched through the window of the lanai as we lit the candles. By the end of Chanukah, and Shabbat Chanukah, he was finished quarantine and we were able to embrace together as a family. It was a joy to have son, daughter, and granddaughters all here at the same time. With Ari living in London, it is a rare occurrence!

We celebrated Christmas Eve with a movie at home and a delicious vegetarian Chinese banquet, picked up from a new discovery Ari made nearby—Shanghai Chinese Food. We also discovered two Indian restaurants that had pick up, one completely vegetarian, and the other with an extensive vegetarian menu. We liked Amber, the second one, better. Christmas Day was on a Friday, this year and we took the opportunity to light up a Heston Blumenthal Christmas Pudding that Ari brought with him (along with other British delicacies) that had been soaked in Courvosier for 18 months. We added a bit of our own Courvosier and the results were spectacular and delicious.

Ari made it his mission while here to bring all our electronics up-to-date. In this, he succeeded admirably! He and Saul opened our computers and replaced components, backed up files, and modified our setups, so that now, our old computers fairly fly through their tasks!

Our New Year’s Eve was really wonderful! The weather, even at night, was warm enough to enjoy the pool and hot tub. We used a projector we have had for many years to project the movie, “Soul,” onto the wall of our lanai so that we could have, as Jessica called it: “A Dive-In Movie.” Our neighbors went all out on fireworks displays this year (legal in Florida and sold in temporary stands on every shopping center parking lot, and even in Costco), probably because there are very little other outlets for “safely” celebrating this year. Being outdoors, we had the benefit of watching very professional-looking displays for hours all around us. Ari, last year, caught the fireworks bug, and a little before midnight, he began setting off the ones he had purchased on the street in front of our house, along with Izzy, the intrepid one. He promises that, based on what he has learned each year, next year’s display will be even better. I feel blessed because, as of this writing, everyone got home safe and sound with no fingers missing and no Covid 19.

Ari had moved in with us, as his reservation at Summer Bay expired for the last few days of his vacation. Izzy had decided that she wanted to go back home to celebrate her 17th birthday with her Mom and Dad and sister. Although both Jess, Yona and Ari were supposed to go to Orlando Airport at the same time for their respective flights home on January 4, everything changed. When Jess tried to book an additional flight for Izzy, she found it more expedient to change the date to January 7 and take the same flight. On January 4, we arranged to have a picnic near the airport before dropping Ari off for his flight. Saul, Ari and I had discovered an absolutely wonderful vegan restaurant, Dharma Fine Vittles, on one of our excursions when the girls were visiting their other grandmother, Elaine. Ari, who was always looking for interesting places to walk here, discovered that there was a park and walking trail near Dharma. The first time, we packed our suitcase-like, folding picnic table in the trunk, picked up our food at the restaurant, and headed around the corner to find the park. It turned out to be a lovely, gated playground replete with picnic tables. On the trip to the airport, we convinced the girls to accompany us with the promise of good food and an outdoor picnic. It was a beautiful day and the girls wanted to linger there after the picnic and play “Set” on Izzy’s hammock which they laid on the ground. Saul, Ari and I left them, to drive about a mile away to a walking trail that surrounded a lake. As we headed back at the appointed time to pick up the girls, Ari received a notification that his flight had been delayed two hours. This meant he would miss his connecting flight from Miami to London. He thought perhaps he could reroute through a later flight from New York instead, so we dropped him at the nearby Orlando airport and told him we would wait for half an hour to hear from him in the cell-phone waiting lot. As it turned out, the airport was a zoo. An air traffic controller in Jacksonville had tested positive for Covid, and they shut down the entire control tower to disinfect. All air traffic from southern Georgia to central Florida had been grounded. People and families who were trying to get home after the holidays were stranded at the airport for at least that evening. Airlines were not obligated to find them accommodations because the grounding had not been their fault. Ari was advised, emphatically, to go home and rebook until the mess got straightened out. The blessing was that we got to spend three more days of vacation with our children! Sadly, we drove them all to the airport on January 7 for their respective return flights home.

As I said earlier, as of this writing, everyone made it home safely with no collateral damage of missed schooling or work. Jessica’s entire job takes place on-line. All the girls’ schooling takes place on-line. Ari is just wrapping up at the KPMG job he has had for 10 years at the end of January, and is about to begin a new job in the middle of February for a company called EPIQ that, by contract, will be entirely remote into the foreseeable future.

As exhibited in the photos attached, I am continuing to keep busy with my aforementioned tasks. Saul is assisting me by scanning the hundreds of pages of WWII vintage letters we are bringing to light, and we cook together and photograph the results to bring forth the materials that I need to complete my courses of instruction on Jewish cooking. We have scheduled ourselves to receive the two Covid vaccine shots on February 26 and March 22—hopefully, in time to have real, in person, Passover seders this year. We intend to continue quarantining until the bulk of the crisis has passed and we have, as a community, achieved herd immunity. Here’s hoping that life will return to some semblance of what passed for normal last year, and that we will have a better world and a more united country in the future.

Finding “Joy” As the Pandemic Drags On

Click here for additional photos.

There are many reasons to be sad and depressed as the pandemic drags on and “normal” life as we knew it at the beginning of the year now seems a distant dream after seven months of self-isolation. But as I communicate with friends and family who led far more active lives than we in retirement had been living, I hear reasons for appreciation (if not necessarily joy) for the slowed-down pace of life that people are now experiencing. My family is exceedingly lucky, being able to slow down without actually losing the source of their livelihood or exposing themselves to risky situations that are out of their control. The upcoming election with its constant bombardment of conflicting views and uncertainty about the future of this country threatens to undo any sense of well-being that we might steal for ourselves by trying to live in the moment. Nevertheless, we must keep hoping for a better world, doing what we can to bring it about, and trying to create small moments of joy for ourselves and those we love so that we all can keep our sanity until we emerge from under this dark cloud. In short, we must count our blessings and do what we can to create as many blessings as possible during these bleak times. 

As I look back on my photos since I last posted here on August 27, I realize that many of the photos are of food. Yes, in our family, and probably many others, beautiful food, lovingly prepared, is a great source of joy. We have just finished celebrating our High Holy Days and harvest festivals for 2020. We did not observe or celebrate in the usual ways this year, but there were many creative and meaningful ways that our clergy devised to bring us together in prayer and bring us joy. We have many new friends, met over Zoom, and Teams, and FaceTime, to whom we would have just given a nod at services in the past. In addition, people are not limited to their physical locations. People can access each other regardless of physical disability or even old age, which keeps us all from feeling isolated. We may not be able to give each other a hug, or a handshake, right now, but that does not keep us from interacting and sharing our lives with each other in a very personal and meaningful way.

Just having two of our granddaughters living with us, now, has been a great and constant source of joy for Saul and me. Although there are moments of bickering, frustration, and depression, I think we all appreciate how lucky we are to have each other. Sami and Izzy, while they are each attending their schools remotely, have bonded over playing video games, such as Animal Crossings, together, helping each other with schoolwork, discussing anime series they follow, cooking what they have decided they crave, taking long drives together to pick up take-out food, and visiting their Grammy, who lives about 45 minutes away, a few days a week. They, too, have their remote friends whom they cannot touch, but who appear regularly on their screens even though they may be 10,000 miles apart.

Lastly, there is no discounting the beauty of our weather and surroundings here in Florida. We have our own pool and hot tub which we can use all year around. We have a landscape that provides exotic flowers and fruit all year around. We have wildlife that never ceases to amaze. Almost daily, the sunsets alone are enough to produce joy, if nothing else does. It’s all in the appreciation!

Some of the other highlights of the last few months have been: Sami making ramen from scratch; celebrating Elaine’s birthday with a carrot cake; Izzy giving us amazing haircuts! watching our plants develop amazing flowers; preparing an Apple Honey Cake from my cookbook, Bubbie’s Kitchen, which I am preparing to put up online (I haven’t made it in over 30 years); getting round challot, both regular and rainbow prepared for Rosh Hashanah; making apple butter cookies, zucchini bread, and date bread sandwiches for the holiday and sending them to friends, preparing a requested Presley Bella Angel Food Cake for Ted’s 90th birthday and celebrating it together (socially distanced) on our lanai on a lovely evening; receiving a beautiful blue and white bouquet of fresh flowers from Elaine; enjoying lunch together on both days of Rosh Hashanah; a surprise package that arrived from Jessica and Alex containing a whole collection of adorable honey bears that contained many different kinds of honey to add to our “now vast” honey collection; Sami making gorgeous and delicious moon cakes for the Chinese Moon Festival on October 1 and sharing them with our neighbors; preparing with Sami Erik’s birthday cake, with a requested sour cream pound cake, layered with meringue, fresh mango, mango coulis, and cream cheese icing and celebrating with Haley, Erik, and Ken (socially distanced) on the lanai. Haley and Erik have rented a beautiful vacation villa nearby and will be here in Florida for the next eight months!

There was a lot about which to be joyful! My recommendation to all of us, to help us get through this, is to search out what small things you can do that bring you joy in your life, and even after the pandemic ends, and hopefully that will be soon, do whatever brings you and your loved ones joy on a daily basis.

Our Life in Covid Times

Click here for additional photos.

My last post ended with the statement “we have been very, very lucky,” and I still very much feel that way. Being retired, Saul and I have the luxury of staying home without worrying about losing a job, having our income curtailed, or, at this point, having to venture out into a potentially dangerous environment to gather supplies, food or otherwise. All our children have good jobs which enable them to work online, and they have been very conscientious and careful about exposing themselves. I really feel terrible for our granddaughters, who, while being extremely careful, are suffering from physical isolation from friends their age. As we have begun the school year, both Sami and Izzy are now living with us here in Florida and opted to take virtual classes, Sami at New College in Sarasota, and Izzy in a special high school program at Polk County College which will award her a 2-year Associates Degree when she has finished her two years of high school. Whether they will need or opt to take physical classes will have to be decided again in January, when a new semester begins. Yona opted to return to New Jersey with her parents at the end of this year’s Camp Bubbie and Saba, right after Sami’s birthday. As I have written before, Yona, while she enjoyed the very close months with her sisters, really enjoys being an “only” child. Camp Bubbie and Saba 2020 was as different from in previous years as most people’s lives are from their pasts in this “new normal” of 2020. Nevertheless, this family is nothing if not resourceful. I view this quality as our greatest strength. We had a great summer, even without Disney, Universal Studios, The Crayola  Experience, shopping, the beaches, myriad wonderful restaurant meals, and socializing with friends and family in the area.

I did a lot of cooking before the crew arrived in preparation, but I needn’t have bothered. The girls all enjoy cooking and baking as much as I and a lot of what I prepared for us is still in the freezer. The five of them and their dog, Inky, arrived at the beginning of June, having loaded their rented van with everything Izzy and Sami would need for their, at least, two years of living with us and Jessica followed behind in their car. Upon arrival, the van was immediately returned at Orlando Airport. Elaine, Alex’s mom, was put under quarantine by the kids for two weeks since she had ventured out to have her hair and nails done prior to their arrival. For those first two weeks, Jess stayed with us, sleeping on the sofa, while Alex and the dog stayed with his mother. During that time, Jess helped the girls rearrange and decorate their rooms to suit them. The results were pretty, interesting, and more livable and convenient for them to function in during these difficult times. They seem very comfortable with the results.

Saul and I have spent a lot of time gardening and caring for our new trees and plants. Unfortunately, despite my frequent warnings that he should wear gloves while gardening in Florida, he got a nasty sting that caused his hand to swell badly and required antibiotics and a few days of resting it with ice before it returned to normal. The fruit and flowers that surround us are a constant source of joy every morning when we open the curtains. Also a source of great joy are our pool and spa which are not only beautiful to look at, but very functional for relaxation as well. The visual stimuli around here are uplifting on even the bleakest days of rain, which are usually followed by magnificent rainbows and technicolor sunsets and sunrises. Even the birds, bunnies, and unusual insects are a source of amusement. My overwhelming reason for getting out of bed right now is putting up a Daily Love Letter from WWII. Each day I am communing with my 19-year-old mother and 26-year-old father as they endure the painful separations they experienced from 1941 until 1945. Given the hardships with which they were faced, Covid 19 seems like a piece of cake in comparison.

A really sad note that occurred in May was the sudden death of Saul’s cousin, Sylvia. She was the mother of the bride, Adi, whose wedding we attended in Israel back in October. Her family had taken her to the hospital for fluid retention, but she died suddenly from pneumonia the evening before she was due to return home. The only bright note was that we had a world-wide family Zoom session at the end of the shiva period. We were able to converse with relatives we hadn’t seen for many years, some of whom weren’t even sure how the others were related or who they were.

When Elaine was allowed out of quarantine, and the girls could finally embrace their dad, we had a socially-distanced Shabbat and invited our friends, Susan, Ted and Larry from the neighborhood. We set up separate tables on the lanai, but the weather was so uncomfortably hot that we decided to table Shabbat socializing until Florida winter arrives and we can sit outside without getting in the pool to cool off. That should probably be sometime in late October or November.

During the summer, Izzy and Yona sculpted and baked small decorative objects for their rooms. Izzy dyed her hair teal, but only half. Sami completed credits towards her degree in hospitality at Valencia College online. Sami indulged her formidable pasta making skills when she received her desired pasta sheeter and cutting attachments for our Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. This allows her to prepare the pasta single-handedly, without the necessity of another person to lay out the dough as it comes out of the machine. Both our original old shiny hand-cranked pasta makers were depositing flakes of chrome in the dough. Izzy baked a delectable olive bread and later on, we discovered that her pizza-making abilities are spot-on as well, not to mention her from-scratch pizza rolls augmented with her home-made tomato sauce and very authentic-tasting naan to accompany Sami’s amazing tofu curries. Yona’s specialties are cupcakes, cookies, and cinnamon rolls which we often distributed to neighbors and friends so that Saul and I, who should not be tempted in that department, could maintain our healthy vegan way of life. With the cooperative effort of the three girls, Saul and I enjoyed some amazing meals this past summer. They treated each other to elaborate breakfasts of omelets, taiyaki, pancakes, waffles and roasted, seasoned potatoes.

The Fourth of July celebration here in our neighborhood did not disappoint. We were able to pull up our pool furniture to our pool screen, which nicely protected us from the evening mosquitoes, and watch unbelievably elaborate fireworks set off by our neighbors on all sides for hours.

Not being able to visit the barber or hairdressers, Jess and Izzy gave pretty competent haircuts to Sami and Saul. Izzy, who had been practicing driving with Saul for a few weeks, was able to pass her driving test on the first time out, and can now legally drive alone in the car. Besides the blogging, organizing of old CD’s containing years-old photos and uploading them to Google photo, digital scanning of old photographs and slides as well as the thousands of pages of letters my family wrote during WWII, and just catching up with things on the “honey-do” list, Saul and I have not been bored in the six months we have been self-isolating. I never thought I would have enough time in my lifetime to ever read all those pages of letters, but I wish I had read them long ago because it would have given me such insight into my parents’ relationship and consequently a better understanding of our family dynamic all the years we were growing up. In whatever free moments we manage to put aside, we have been attending Shabbat religious services on Zoom every week, joining with others in the congregation to light Havadallah candles each week, taking Zoom classes, and schmoozing with others in Decaf, Davka and Dibbur sessions once a month. We even attended a book launching a few days ago by our former rabbi, Howard Avruhm Addison. We would never have been able to be present at an event taking place almost 2,000 miles away without the miracle of Zoom. Also on Zoom, Saul and Sami are tutoring students in Hebrew on Wednesday evenings, and teaching in the synagogue religious school on Sundays.

Alex had driven home with the dog after about three weeks in Florida. He returned again with the dog, who stayed with Elaine, a week before Sami’s 20th birthday at the beginning of August. We had an incredibly delicious Shabbat meal together to celebrate, for which Sami, as usual, made her own deliciously elaborate birthday cake. It was a three-layer sour cream pound cake. Each layer had a meringue circle on top, a ring of butter cream around the edge to corral a mango coulis topped with shaved toasted coconut, more butter cream to frost the top and sides, and a drippy glaze of more mango coulis. Sami loves mangoes! Since we are no longer buying annual passes to Disney World for the kids, we bought Sami a coveted Nintendo Switch for her birthday so that she could participate in gaming with her friends in college, her sisters, and one of her younger cousins who is feeling particularly isolated. After celebrating Sami’s birthday, Alex, Jess, Yona and Inky drove back to New Jersey where Yona can now have her life as an only child back, while she prepares to take virtual courses when school begins for her in September.

We are all trying very hard to cultivate those things that bring us joy so that we will not feel hemmed in or greatly limited by our new lifestyle during these very unsettling times. We are all trying to be very careful so as not to contract or carry the virus, but we find that beyond the limitations of not being able to socialize or entertain during social distancing in person, our life in Covid times has many advantages as well.