Funny--how could so much stuff come out of such a tiny space?

(Our lift as seen from our apt on D-day)

It's starting to look like people actually live here, thanks to the ridiculous number of hours we've spent opening and unpacking boxes. With Succot thrown into the mix (Chag Sameach, by the way :), it felt a little like drowning in chaos for a while there.
I ask you, "Why are we still unpacking if it felt like we sold everything in the States?"

Just one more whine:
We are actually so far gone that last night, as I was unpacking and hanging clothes in our room, I sat down on the bed to rest a minute and the next thing I knew, Ami was yelling his breakfast demands into my ear. I was still in my clothes and lying on top of piles of clothes. I looked around for Rich and found him passed out on the couch, also fully dressed.

OK...now that whining time is done, I can talk a bit about Succot!

Initially, we were a bit worried there wouldn't be room for our succah in the courtyard in back of the building where everyone builds their succot. There are limited spots because there are trees that hang over much of the yard.

Luckily, a handyman guy who was working next door overheard the problem and ran down to get a saw from his truck. With the saw in one hand, he climbed one of the trees with his other hand (we're talking about 15 ft up) and sawed off a problamatic branch. Problem solved - up went the succah.

Actually, it took almost no effort on our part because the kids from next door put it up for us...and then hung our decorations! So sweet and thank G-d because we needed to do some heavy work in the apt and thanks to them, we able to do it.
We've been invited out for every Yom Tov and Shabbat meal so far, so the poor succah has been a bit lonely.

It felt good being able to have it up, though. We wanted to have our own succah for our first year here.