A Few Pre-Yom Tov Items

1) My bubby is so cool.
I called my grandmother yesterday and we caught up a little. I have not spoken to her since Rosh Hashana so she was catching me up. She said she stayed home on Yom Kippur (walking up the hill to her shul is hard for her at 88 years old!) She said she spent the entire day davening nice and slowly, resting here and there when she got tired. "I was really into it" she said "more so than any other year, I don't know why." Pretty impressive.

2) My house is feeling small.
I am thrilled to have a house of my own but it's too small! My basement is a leaky mess and therefore unsuitable for man or beast. The rest of my house consists of 3 BRs, Livingroom/Diningroom a kitchen and 1.5 baths.
Weeks ago I invited my brother in law and sister and their new baby to come for Sukkos.
Last week my sister-in-law asked if her college aged sister could come along so I said sure!
Then my husband's cousin (in med school a couple hours away) called Saturday night and asked if he could come too so I said "if you'll sleep on the couch" and he said "great!" So every possible sleeping area is now spoken for. The next person who calls up will have to sleep in the bathtub, and speaking of which....

3) I fixed the bathtub drain!
Suddenly Sunday morning the bathtub stopped draining. With a pile of guest of the way and only one shower I had to act quickly. Is spite of my husband's insistence that we call a plumber I took apart the drain, unclogged it (SOOOO DISGUSTING) and put it all back together. Yay me!

4) Sukkah decorations = Driveway litter
What is with this WIND?!
My youngest and I hung up some shiny new decorations yesterday morning and this morning they are all destroyed. I need to come up with some kind of indestructible Sukkah decorations. Hmmm... How much would you pay for an item like that? Maybe I can sell them off my blog? The wheels are spinning.

5) Refridgerators
One of my brothers-in-law is abroad for the year and left me his dormroom fridge to use in his absence. It's been sitting around since May but with all the holiday cooking I've been doing I decided to plug it in an use it. How long do you think it takes a small fridge to get cold? I let it crank up for about 3-4 hours and then I put a cooled (enormous) roast in it. I hope the fridge was cold enough. I don't have enough bathrooms to accommodate 9 people with food poisoning. It should be fine right? right?

6) I'm tired
Despite my best efforts to cook in advance, build the sukkah early, and take things one step at a time I still feel like I'll be going into yom tov rushed and exhausted. Also my head hurts - I need a nap followed by a latte.

7) ANYWAY
I'm still very much looking forward to Yom Tov. I love Sukkos, and not just because it's my birthday, but because it's such a fun holiday. Eating outside in our new sukkah, thinking of God's protection and our travels in the midbar, visiting with friends and family, eating delicious meals, singing hallel, the smell of the esrog, I love it all.

A good gebentcht Yom Tov to all of you!