Very first snow

Big news for Matt

He's already been accepted at his #1 school choice - the Univ of New Haven in Connecticut. We can't believe it happened so quick! Now we just have to see what kind of aid package we can find for him (he's already been awarded a partial scholarship) because the school ain't cheap.

Matt cooks

Matt made the entire dinner tonight - potato skins for the appetizer and crab-stuffed flounder with brocolli for the entree. In this photo, he's cooking Bananas Foster for dessert.

I'm the new president of TSOC Sisterhood

Holy cow! It's official - my friend Dawn and I are the new co-presidents of the synagogue Sisterhood (or Women of Reform Judaism)! I was sort of drafted to run, and after some initial misgivings, decided to Go For It. The group has been dormant for a couple of years and there's clearly an interest in creating a way for Jewish women to connect. We had a great meeting on Sunday morning, with an impressive turnout, and the group has lots of ideas for programs and activities. Dawn and I really wanted to hit the ground running, so to speak, so we already planned a Havdallah service at my house on Sat, Nov 17th (one thing I'd like to start is a monthly Havdallah group, hmmm, that sounds familiar). We want to have more activities at people's houses, to make it less formal and to serve the wide geographic area that members come from (the synagogue is downtown). And we especialy want to get away from what we witnessed last year, which is talking about lots of stuff, but never doing anything. We want to have lots of activities and not get bogged down in planning or second guessing (e.g., what's the *perfect* date for this or that). This way, we can raise of profile and get noticed in the synagogue community. We got a really positive response to our approach.

These are some other activities we discussed: my friend Jennifer, who is a "Stampin' Up" consultant, is hosting a Chanukah card making party the last week of November, a woman named Lisa is going to do a Quilling class, another woman, named Judith, wants to start a monthly salon (I'm really excited about that!), we talked about a book club with Jewish topics or authors, a monthly Shabbat potluck and a monthly lunch group. There was also talk of wine tastings, game nights, movie nights, and a health fair. We agreed that there are plenty of interesting women in the group and in the community to have guest speakers and meaningful programs at monthly meetings. And maybe most exciting, there are clearly some untapped babysitters among the synagogue teens - we're trying to get coordinated with them, for our meetings and events, and also just for people who need sitters and can't find any. The whole thing is very exciting! I hope we can keep the momentum going.

Walk in the park on a lovely fall day

Phillip came along. We took a walk first - for some reason, it was Attack Matthew day.

Then we hung out on the playground for awhile.

The Celiac Maven

Larry told me that someone at his restaurant last night said that the Watertown TRH is getting a "reputation" as very GF-friendly, due largely to his (Larry's) extensive knowledge. HA! That's to my credit of course, and Larry said so. But I was ridiculously thrilled to think that my efforts to educate him are helping any number of people almost a hundred miles away. WOW!

My precocious daughter

Today Alana told me that she wanted to be a doctor. She's FOUR!