Yaroni Turns One

Somehow a year since the world’s most uncomfortable ride to Tsfat hospital has passed, and the baby is now 1. So we decided to throw him a birthday party. In true Israeli style we politely waited til the last minute to invite half our guests and prepared a pile of pashtidot [hebrew for quiche-type food] and cakes not really having a clue how many people would turn up.

Pretty much everyone did.

This would have been fine, except our air-conditioning doesn’t really work so well downstairs and we have no air-outlet for our kitchen [a somewhat Irish design] so the house was a bit hot and smoky. But we managed. The boys had a great time although I am not convinced Yaron knew it was his birthday. He loved the games though.

Israelis are incredibly generous. Despite our instructions on the invite not to bring presents, most people did. And despite this being a “poor” country, people give thoughtful and often expensive gifts. My instinct as a Brit is to call them up and thank them but they would probably think I was one sandwich short of a picnic. Generosity is fine. Etiquette? I don’t think Ben-Yehuda even bothered coming up with a word for that in Hebrew.