It sounds cliche, but it's really hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since Lev and Hila were born. On the one hand, we can't imagine our family without them, but on the other hand, it's like they were just born yesterday!
As Israelis, the big question was: will we celebrate their Hebrew or civil (Gregorian) birthday? Growing up in the US, both Matt and I feel more connected to our civil birth dates, so it seemed natural to us to want to celebrate on November 24th. However, many of our friends here in Israel, especially in our religious community, celebrate birthdays on the Hebrew date (for those of you unfamiliar with the Hebrew calendar, it is a modified lunar calendar with it's own set of month names. It is through this calendar that the Jewish holidays are set, which is why they fall out on different civil dates every year).
One of the nice things about our kids' Hebrew birthday, the 21st of Kislev, is that it falls out a few days before Chanukah (this year, it coincides with the 13th of December). Last year, if you can remember, Chanukah fell in November and overlapped with Thanksgiving, an extremely rare occurrence. Chanukah usually falls in December. This means that for most years, Lev and Hila's civil and Hebrew birthday will be many weeks apart. Which is exactly where we find ourselves today - between the birthdays, or as I like to call it "Chol HaMoed Birthday".
The Hebrew phrase "Chol HaMoed" means "the weekdays of a festival" and refers to the intermediate days of the holidays of Sukkot and Passover, aka the days in between the first and last day(s), the Yom Tov days. Where the first and last day(s) are the "actual" holiday, the Chol HaMoed days combine features of both the weekday (chol) and the festival (moed). So too for "Chol HaMoed Birthday". We will celebrate both birthdays with birthday festivities and we will enjoy the intermediate days with a heightened sense of celebration, but still go about our daily business. Lucky for our kids, they basically get a full month of birthday!
For their November 24th birthday, we were thrilled to have my (Stef's) parents visiting from the US. We were also joined by some of our closest friends here in Israel and various other family members via Skype. Lev and Hila got dressed up, enjoyed their very first cupcake (a carob zucchini cupcake with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting) and opened presents. We also sang them a special birthday song we wrote just for them (Be forewarned, it is very catchy, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
I'm in a writing mood these days, so check your inbox for more updates to come!
Have a great week and enjoy Lev and Hila's Chol HaMoed Birthday!
Love,
Stef, Matt, Lev and Hila
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