S/O Beautiful/Favorite parts of Yom tov

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Forum -> Yom Tov / Holidays -> Succos

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amother

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 8:45 am

I just read the family drama over yt thread and would like to hear some positive stories! Who knows if we can even get more responses on the positive posts than the other thread!

I'll start. We stayed home the whole yt for the first time. My husband worked really hard building a beautiful Sukkah from scratch (yes he is very handy and I am very grateful for that!) My kids loved decorating it. I had fun with table decor and challenged myself to make it beautiful despite our financial challenges. Most of my food came out great and what didn't I chose to shrug off since I made enough of other things to compensate. I was able to get cleaning help for most erev's which was a huge help. I actually let my kids do their sukkos learning/behavior/davening charts from school. Usually I find it too hard to make sure they don't miss something and end up losing the prize. It actually helped me since helping for x amount of time was a part. (Great way to do cleanup!) Kids had a really big disappointment with the amount of candy they got compared to what they are used to/expecting on simchas Torah. Used it as a learning experience (after the tantrums). All in all great Yom tov with ups and downs but I like to focus on the ups. I just went and printed pictures from chol hamoed and preparing/building sukkos so we can all remember and focus on the good times.

amother

Lightblue

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 9:02 am

We had 4 generations together in the Sukkah, all living in Israel. How lucky can you get?

amother

Teal

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 9:35 am

My baby met her great grandparents for the first time (due to covid)
It was incredible

amother

Honeysuckle

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 9:46 am

After feeling down and blah the first days , a few friends of mine were feeling we needed to lift ourselves up.
We met up at a Simchas Beis Hashoeva with our families , we women danced together in a dark quiet corner so the men couldn’t see us . Then afterward we headed to one of my friends backyards where we lit a fire and made a kumzits while the men and boys went to maariv and said Mishnah Torah. We all brought our daughters , young and old to the kumzits. One friend’s teen played guitar while we all sang, made a lechaim and it was really beautiful and uplifting. That great feeling carried over into Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. I had the best Simchas Torah that I ever experienced in years. One teen who usually could care less about anything danced non stop , with the biggest smile on his face. We participated in three different shuls (we went to both yeshivish and Chasidish shuls and they both had their individual beauty and atmosphere).
My oldest son went to his Rosh yeshiva for Simchas Torah and he said it was the most leibedig and beautiful it’s ever been. We came out of Yom Tov with big smiles and feelings of real joy. I’m so grateful to HaShem for allowing me to have that feeling , especially after feeling depressed and low the first few days (because I was bored and burnt out).

dancingqueen

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 10:13 am

At risk of sounding like a sanctimommy, I enjoyed having a lot of family time.

amother

Babyblue

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 10:19 am

I enjoyed close family time with dh and kids.
We were home in our own beautiful sukka with some single guests who needed a place to eat that came for a few of the meals.
Was very relaxing and enjoyable without any drama and without any packing and traveling and shlepping and without any politics.

Some of the money we saved I used to buy ready made food so that I don’t work too hard in the kitchen.
Was bliss.

busy mommy

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 4:51 pm

amother [ Lightblue ] wrote:

We had 4 generations together in the Sukkah, all living in Israel. How lucky can you get?

Wow! that must have been so beautiful!

dena613

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 5:34 pm

Hearing the leining of Bereishis on Simchas Torah.such a simcha!

amother

Indigo

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 5:46 pm

delete

Last edited by amother on Sun, Oct 10 2021, 5:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Steelblue

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 5:52 pm

Hosting my parents for a yr for the first time in several years. Sharing our beautiful and uplighting yamim noraim with them. The ability to be in shul and with our kehilla to share in beautiful tefillos and inspiring derashos. Getting together with friends, hosting and being able to share our simcha with others. As much as going away sounds appealing, I love spending yt at home. After all the hard work we are in the comfort of our modest but beautiful home, kids sleep in their beds and play with their friends. And I had a chance to catch up with my husband (who I rarely see during the rush of the year since we work opposite shifts). As much as I am craving routine and the normalcy of a schedule it's going to be hard to see it season end.

amother

Ghostwhite

Fri, Oct 01 2021, 6:06 pm

Things I loved...

-Family time. Spending time just chilling with the kids, playing board ganes, discovering how much fun it is to play Trouble and Perpetual Commotion with them.

-Driving around aimlessly on chol hamoed, happy to be all together, not at work or school, even with the inevitable bickering in the car.

-Eating my delicious food that I worked so so hard to make, late at night, weeks before yomtov (I work full time theough erev yom tov). Hearing my husband and kids complement my food and take doubles made it worth it!

-Reading my novels. I loooove reading.

-Eating out by neighbors...hadn't done that basically since pre- covid and it was so so so nice to be vaccinated and feel relaxed.

-Going to shul on simchas torah, watching all the dancing....realizing I have matured a bit (yay!)and no longer feel resentful that my husband doesnt enjoy dancing but mainly stays on the side watching. I learned to enjoy everyone else dancing, and appreciate my husband for the unique man he is.

-The weather!! The weather weather weather! (In NY at least)

-My manicure (which I rarely get)that I treated myself to erev yom tov...which lasted beautifully the whole time (its only just starting to chip a bit) and it wasnt even gel! Long lasting essie for the win, hooray!

-The Rebbetzin of the shul, who I really like and admire, giving me an extra warm hello how are you kinda thing. Sue me, it felt nice.

-Sleeping past 5:30 am (the time I usually wake up for work) day after day after day!!

-My husband starting to carry his gun to shul (he just got his full license), after taking a very exhaustive and intense armed guard course for the past 1.5 years and mastering the practical exam (he can draw and accurately shoot, from a concealed carry, in 1.5 seconds. And very accurately run through the course and hit targets on command at ranges going up to 75 feet. Among many other requirements, that not everyone was able to pass. Go hubby! Im so proud of him BH)

-my 4 year old son constantly telling me "mommy, I love you" at random times. It's a new phase of his, and I love it.

-my self restraint when I did NOT respond disrespectfully to my very very very difficult mother.

-my special yom tov white chocolate Yolo pudding that I bought myself.

-our sukkah! Random wood boards, random hodge podge decorations, not magazine worthy but I love every bit of it!

SuperWify

Sat, Oct 02 2021, 4:15 pm

It’s beena very difficult yt for many different reasons (like for one getting sick in the middle and missing shul simchas Torah) and my answer is not the typical answer- but one YT night me, DH and some of his siblings stayed up till around 4 AM playing cards games and just having a laugh. It was very special.

amother

Melon

Sat, Oct 02 2021, 4:39 pm

amother [ Teal ] wrote:

My baby met her great grandparents for the first time (due to covid)
It was incredible

Kah!

A beautiful part of YT was erev YK when we go visit the grandparents to receive berachas.

How special is this, my toddler ran up the stairs to his great great grandfather's house!!

BH we had to come up with new names for each one so that he is able to identify all the generations of grandparents in conversation.

Thank you Hashem.

amother

Papaya

Sat, Oct 02 2021, 5:29 pm

Having our newly married daughter and SIL and seeing him feel at home B"H, thankful to HKB"H