Purim and Pizza

Starting next Saturday night and through Sunday, we will be celebrating the holiday of Purim which commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people living throughout the ancient Persian Empire from a plot by Haman to annihilate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther. According to the Book of Esther, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus, planned to kill the Jews, but his plans were foiled by Esther, Ahasuerus's queen. Mordecai, a palace official, cousin and foster parent of Esther, subsequently replaced Haman. The Jews were delivered from being the victims of an evil decree against them and were instead allowed by the King to destroy their enemies, and the day after the battle was designated as a day of feasting and rejoicing.

Purim is characterized by communal recitation of the Book of Esther in synagogues, giving gifts of sweets, wine and fruit and baked goods to friends and neighbors, giving charity to the poor, a celebratory meal, and wearing of costumes. This year Y wants to be a fairy and E is going to be Winnie the Pooh.

What does dressing up in costumes have to do with the story of Purim? Good question. The best answer I've heard (and there maybe be many reasons but this is the one that "spoke" to me) is that when we read the Book of Esther, G-d's name is not mentioned even once. The Divine hand in the salvation of the Jews at that time was hidden, or "disguised", by seemingly natural events.

As part of the general "whooping it up" in this lead-up to Purim, Y's school put on a Purim carnival for 2 1/2 hours on Friday morning and the families of all the students were invited. The tables and chairs were taken out of all classrooms and each room was turned into a different station with different activities. Pizza, drinks and candy were being sold and there was a cotton candy machine.

There was a costume dress up and makeup room.

One room was turned into a petting corner with rabbits and guinea pigs and hamsters and snakes and a tarantula and chickens and a large tortoise.

In Y's classroom a large inflatible bouncy castle had been set up for the kids to jump on. It took up the whole room!



 There were two teachers making shapes and various creatures out of balloons.

There was a gardening corner where the kids could choose between tomato, celery or cabbage plant and pot it and decorate the pot with stickers and then the teacher would wrap it nicely in cellophane to take home.

There was a ring toss competition for which Y got a prize.

There was a "bottle pool" instead of a "ball pool" - an entire classroom filled with empty plastic soda bottles.

DH was planning to come with me but due to his bum knee didn't make it. So it was Mom and daughter time and it was much better than I'd expected. It was all super low budget but the kids had a blast and I was impressed with the variety of activities. The school obviously put a lot of thought and planning and organizing into it and fun was had by all.

Last night I came home and rather than my usual "Kids! Here are your cornflakes!" dinner call, I plumbed the depths in order to find the energy to make some whole wheat crust pizza.

I have a good easy crust recipe and I already had the pizza/spaghetti sauce made up in the freezer so we had 2 large pizzas ready within an hour. I didn't feel like doing it but was happy I did. We had that for dinner and I cut up what was left and threw the pieces in the freezer for quick, kid-friendly lunches.