Well, things are moving along on the Bat Mitzvah front. We are five weeks away. It is very soon. Sooner than I think. Sooner than I want.
Ke'alohi has made some headway studying and practicing the prayers and her torah portion. The rabbi came over today to talk with us about how she is doing. Together, she and he basically ran through most of the service sitting on our living room couch. She did all the prayers very well... chanting them all. She read her torah portion - as much as she knows. She's still reading with the vowels, so she'll have to switch soon and then practice, practice, practice. She's got a lovely voice and is very musical so she wants to chant the torah portion (as well as the rest of the service). The rabbi, in his humor, reminded her that whatever she does, the most important thing she has to remember is that she has to make him look good the day of the service. So, if she's practicing and asks herself, "Am I ready to make the rabbi look good?" and the answer is yes, she should practice for five more minutes. If the answer is no, she should practice for ten more minutes. Pretty funny.
We also talked about some of the pre-service tasks and day-of logistics. We are a congregation without a building, so there is some moving of the torah that has to happen... from one location to another (fortunately, there is a daytime mitzvah, so the rabbi will be bringing the Torah to our service). My daughter is making her own prayer book using a Hebrew word processing program, and we will need to print them for all guests at the service. That seems like a lot of ink on paper... not so good for the environment. We talked about a greener way to do this -- maybe projecting the prayerbook onto a few big screens? It'd be nice if we could rent Kindles and give them to guests, but it is prohibitively expensive... still thinking of a solution for this, but we may end up printing them.
I am happy to report I can check off a few more items from the list of things I had in August (and I've got a few more to add...)
- Met with hotel catering to talk about timing of cocktails, dinner, dancing and room set-up and to pick menu (OK, the menu is not completely decided, but it's 90% -- we do need to settle on the MAIN entree for adults, though!)
- Address and send invitations
- Settled on a mitzvah project! -- My daughter loves to read, so she's decided to collect new and gently used books for preschool thru 8th grade kids for the non-profit organization Book Work Angels. This organization creates lending libraries in Chicago public schools where the majority of kids read below their grade level.
- Figured out table centerpieces / decoration for the room - We decided on using some of the donated books to create our centerpieces. We'll stack books by theme (hopefully!), such as "ABC" or "Harry Potter", "Dr. Seuss", "The Magic Schoolbus", etc. and wrap them with pretty purple and green ribbon and put them in the center of the table with flowers and candles. We thought we'd use the theme to "name" the tables and we'll use those names on place cards.
- Sunday Brunch - is now scheduled... and invites have gone out.
In Progress:
- Write Dvar Torah and practice!
- Finish creating prayer book and print
- Get and make place cards for tables
- Figure out
party favor for the kids -- and order it - Order some "prizes" for kids for dances
- Guest book for people to sign
- Assign tables for adults (kids will all sit at one large L-shaped table)
- Meet with DJ to talk about songs, party tone, etc.
I must say this has been a fairly emotional journey. I've lost sleep over it... sometimes thinking that this is an extravagant, silly endeavor and wondering WHY on earth we are doing it (it's like a wedding!) Other times, when I hear from my cousins who I have not seen in years and live far away and my great aunts and uncles who are planning to attend, I feel good about getting the family together for a happy event.
That said, I don't think we'll do it this way again for the other two kids. I'd be just fine with having a smaller, friends-only event for them... fair or not... or taking a family trip, or sending them on a trip. Doing it once with all the relatives from near and far seems reasonable, but doing it again in 2 years when my second daughter turns 13 feels overwhelming. I'll have to remember I felt this way 2 years from now (hence, the Blog!)
So, final question is... Main Entree, what to choose?? Here are our (in-budget) choices... we can choose one plus an option for vegetarians OR we can choose two but would need to ask all guests which they want to choose before the event (via e-mail at this point...) These choices are only for adults. The kids will have an Italian buffet with pasta, pizza, salad, and garlic bread.
- Chicken Wellington, French Beans, Port Wine Fig Sauce
- Beef Tenderloin, Rosemary Duchess Potatoes and Cabernet Demi-Glaze
- French Breast of Chicken Topped with Grilled Apple and Brie, Sweet Potato Mashed, Pinot Noir Jus
- Grilled Salmon Pesto Orzo, Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, Vegetable Bundle
- Pan Seared Halibut, White Bean and Roasted Garlic Puree, Roasted Red & Yellow Pepper Piperade
- Beef Wellington with a Cabernet Sauce, and Asparagus
- Pistachio Seared Sea Bass, Shrimp Potato Hash, Yellow Pepper and Smoked Paprika Butte
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