Nieces and Nephews and Finnish Folk, Oh My!

We recently had the very lovely experience of hosting TWO relatives (who don't live together) on the same day.   Nephew Ben (Margaret and Graham's son, from England) was visiting in Israel because he got a great airfare, so he and friend Alex were tooling around for a few days.  Niece Mia (Hilary a''h and Michael's daughter from FL and Ben's first cousin) had been on Birthright and decided to stay for an extra week because she found she really loved Israel (yay!).  Birthright FL ended just as the British Visit began, so we had the delight of having them both visit for the afternoon.

I can't begin to say how lovely it was to get to know them on their own and as the wonderful young adults they have become.  We mostly only see each other at family events and, while it's great to be together with the entire family, it's hard to have an in-depth talk with much of anyone.  I hereby highly recommend moving 6000 miles away from where the rest of the family lives; it really gives you an opportunity to know the rest of the crew better if/when they visit ;)

L'chaim!

Mia stayed with us a few days, and, of course, the girls were totally smitten with her.  Chana came home from seminary for an afternoon and we went to one of our favorite restaurants (looking forward to when Jeff, Marissa and Salome arrive in July, as this place has the best homemade french fries our family has ever tasted.  And that's saying a lot).

Nothing like a cousin

We finished our week with a visit from more people from Finland.  Our neighbor organized a week-long group tour of Israel-loving non-Jews from Finland and we hosted a really sweet couple for Shabbos dinner.  Since my view of folks from Finland was starting to be that they all loved Israel, I figured I should do a reality check and ask what their friends and family thought of their love of Israel and frequent visits (this was trip #5 for them).  In a heavy accent, Mr. Fin slowly answered, "They think we are crazy" ;).  Okay, so good thing there are these trips to build relationships!

Come back soon, everyone!