The fall Jewish holidays started early this year, on Labor Day. Our family spent Rosh Hashanah quietly at home, just the four of us. Aiden's entire classroom was sent home on Friday, August 27th due a COVID-19 exposure. Rosh Hashanah may have been the beginning of the Jewish calendar, but is was also the end of quarantine for our family. Thankfully, only Josh really had an major symptoms, but was on the mend for the start of the Jewish New Year.
As part of our Rosh Hashanah home service, we floated lighted candles in the pool to represent the actions/things that we would like to focus on and improve in the new year. It was our own adaptation of the traditional Jewish tashlich ritual. It ended up being much more meaningful than I originally thought it would be and the kids really embraced the sentiment.
Sukkot began on Monday, September 20th. With the holidays earlier in the year, the outside temperatures here in Phoenix were still in the high 90's during the day. The thought of building the Sukkot outside this year seemed very uncomfortable and unrewarding. So, instead, I surprised the family by building our sukkah inside this year. The kids were so excited to discover it when they arrived home from school. We loved having every meal in the sukkah all week long -- something that we have never accomplished before. It may not have been the traditional way of celebrating, but I actually felt that we used our sukkah more and enjoyed quality family time in it together.
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