Purim

Happy Purim!  We've never celebrated Purim before, so this year was a bit of an experiment.  I won't pretend to know much about Purim.  I did some research and, as we just spent a couple months studying Esther in adult education at church, the story was fresh in my mind.  

We shared a meal of Persian stew with friends (this recipe: good, though I think the 6-8 is servings is very optimistic.  If you are serving it as a main, I'd say it serves 4.)  We also had ham and cheese hamantashen for the kids (using puff pastry) and traditional hamantashen for dessert.  For me, the highlight of the evening was Jim reading this picture book of Esther with the children all booing and playing shakers at the name of Haman and cheering at the name of Mordicai.

I'd love to go all out, dress up and do a play some year; but for a first attempt, our little Purim was a fun celebration.  We all enjoyed a wonderful Biblical story, and in my mind that is a success!

Hamantashen translates as Haman's pockets, but these cookies are also held to look like his three cornered hat.  In Israel they call them 'Oznei Haman' meaning Haman's ears.

The kids loved the hamantashen and Jonah took some to his class at school today too.