It's Hanukkah in Chico

Hanukkah oh Hanukkah
Come light the Menorah.
We’ll have a party,
We’ll all dance the Hora...











Mia loves to light her own menorah and sing the blessings. Such a lovely voice...very talented.











Coming as it does right after her birthday, we sort of downplay the gift giving part. Mia got two gifts each night. A new pair of socks, and a book. For now she is just fine with that.




















The local Chabbad House had a lighing of their giant menorah in the city square. It was a nice event. That is Lisa and me in front wearing the blue and brown coats. This picture was in the newspaper.











And then on to the Synagogue Hanukkah Party
Congregation Beth Israel puts on a pretty good party. It was lots of fun. Everyone brought their own Hanukkah menorahs and we all lit them together. There was a band and lots of singing and dancing.











Our friend Brian was there. He was wearing the sweater that you gave me which I donated to the Synagogue auction. He bought it in a fierce bidding war with two old ladies.











Mia was in the donut eating contest. She had to eat a donut hanging on a string without using her hands. She is a very talented girl.










And finally the religious school choir sang some songs. That’s Mia in the front center looking beautiful. Did I mention she is very talented???

It's Mia's 4th Birthday

And she had a lovely Princess cake. It had all her favorites, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Arielle.
Yum, she loves the frosting.











And so many of her friends were there. Here are Sadie, Macy and jillian.
There were so many activities for the kids











Lisa's mom, Connie, ran a fishing booth where the kids fished for prizes.











Justin (a friend from Synagogue) did face paintings. Here he is painting a design on Desi's face.











And I made balloon hats and animals for the everyone.
Such a good time was had by all.

Nate Got Married!

Hi Mom,

Wowie Zowie! Nathan and his girlfriend Bernardita got married on Friday December 8th. Berni is a lovely young woman from Chile. She and Nate have been going together for several years and are very happy and very much in love, so this was a natural thing to do.



A week before the wedding there was an engagement party at Berni’s Aunts house near Half Moon Bay. Nancy was there and we got to meet Nathan new in-laws Christian and Ximena Beseler. Fortunately their English was a little better than my Spanish.








Mia was one of the three flower girls. She looked so pretty in her black and white dress.





The wedding was held at San Francisco City Hall, a very impressive building.





Afterwards she posed for a picture with Nate and Birni. Mia and Nate had a good time together and by the end of the weekend she and he were feeling more like brother and sister.





And finally a nice Family photo.

Thanksgiving

Hi mom.

“Over the meadow and through the woods, to gandmother’s house we go.” Yes, off we went to Lisa’s mom’s house. Connie fixed the requisite turkey with all the trimmings, I made the cranberry sauce and candied yams, and we all stuffed ourselves.

Even Jack showed up to take some pictures of the festivities.









In the morning Mia made us a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs. She is such a great cook.







Lisa’s brother Jeff and his wife Anya were there. She is 7 months pregnant, but Jeff is a bit bigger and we all think he will deliver before she does.






Later we got dressed all nice and cozy and went outside. It was cold so I wore my silly beret.






Mia saw something on the ground and had to pick it up, showing the world that she has a great future as a plumber or a refrigerator repair man.



And finally, the whole group posed for a photo.

Anya Jeff Harvey Lisa Mia Roger Connie

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Love, Harvey, Lisa and Mia

Halloween 2006

Hi Mom

But first we have to have a visit from the ghosts of Halloween past



So what we have here is Mia as a puppy age 10 months, Mia as a Hula Girl age 1year 10 month, and Mia as a chef age 2 years 1 months.

And here she is at three years ten months. Such at time we had!!! We went trick-or-treating at all the neighbors and Mia got so much candy. But the moderate child that she is, she gave some to her mommy, some to her daddy, some the her grandma Connie and some to Roger. The rest she is saving for Shabbat treats.

What a little mensch.

Here we have three generations of beautiful women, all ready to go Trick or Treating.








Of course, no Halloween is complete without Jack-0-Laterns. We carved three this year.






We carved one with a big smile, one with a goofy smile





And one that says Shalom!







(Once again something Jewy)

Shabbat at the Rappaports

Hi Mom,

Well it is Shabbat again. Time to set the table with great care. We put on a nice table cloth, put out some nice flowers, get out the Maneshevitz wine, and clean off the candle sticks. Mia has special dishes that she uses only on Shabbat.

Lisa starts us off by playing some Jewish melodies on the piano. Mia and I sometimes play a guessing game where Lisa will start playing a song and we try to be the first one to say what its name.


Next we light the candles and say the blessing. Here Lisa and Mia are bringing the sabbath light into thier hearts, their minds and their souls. After the b’racha, we sing Bim Bam while holding hands and then sing Shabbat Shalom as we dance around the table.

After that...Time to eat. But first comes the blessing over the wine and then the ha motzi over the bread.

Lisa and Mia make a little challah each week. Mia braided this one and made it nice and long. She also made the lovely red challah cover when she was in summer camp.



The next day we went to the home of Lisa’s mom and we all watched Mary Poppins. It was Mia’s first full length movie and she loved it. Tonight in the bath she was singing “Supercalifragilisticexpialadotious”.



Good Times!!!

It's Fall in Chico

The seasons in Chico are a bit different that in other parts of the country. We have about 6 months of summer when it is always over 90 degrees and usually over 100 (if for some reason the temperature drops to 89, people put on their coats), 6 months of winter when it rains constantly, and the rest of the time is divided up between spring and fall. Usually it goes from the high nineties to heavy rain in a day. Right now for some reason the weather is good. Let's hear it for Global Weather Change. Way to go Al. If Chico had good weather all year round, it would be bigger than LA.

Anyway, the leaves are falling, time to rake and clean the rain gutters on an almost daily basis. Great weather for riding bikes. We can take and pick up Mia from school on our bikes. Most of the ride is through Bidwell Park and it is very lovely right now.

It is so nice to go on the trails and paths of this finest example of an urban forests. Chico is a good bike town: it's flat, lots of bike lanes, and the busy streets aren't that busy. We have a bike trailer which is handy when we go to the farmers market Saturday morning before synagogue. (I had to get something Jewy in this post)

And finally a picture of me (Oh, something else Jewy) taken by my wife. "Suck in your gut" she said sweetly before snapping the shot.

Life has been good lately.

It's Sukkot!

So naturally we had to build a sukkah.

But first to temple on Saturday morning. Here is Mia walking behind the Torah with her lulav and etrog followed by the Rabbi. Below Rabbi Julie is giving the children a blessing at the end of the service.


Finally home where we had built a lovely sukkah. We had an open house/sukkah party/60th birthday party. This year our sukkah featured a stereo system with an old turntable to play record albums. We invited people to bring over their records and had a 60’s kind of party. Dylan, Donovan, Jefferson Airplane on the record player, and lots of Alte Kawkers having flashbacks. About fifty people showed up and a splendid time was had by all.