ok, this is IT. . .!

Ok, the personal saga has begun; here I am, in sunny FL, with my daughter and grandkids (and the rest of the mishpocheh ) for three days, after which we will all - the whole hamulah , daughter, grandkids & friend (but not the rest of the mishpachah).- will get on an El Al jet and fly non-stop to Israel for my younger son's wedding later in June.

It, G-d willing, will be a wonderful simcha.

But I anticipate The Trip From H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks. . . if the plane had chandeliers, my grandkids (and I) would probably be swinging from them!

The only time in my life that I had ever been on a twelve-hour flight with little kids (three of 'em) was when we made Aliyah, thirty years ago. And I myself was practically a kid then, green around the ears but much younger, and able to take it better, physically and mentally. Now, I'm. . . never mind.

Also, I only had two kids then, one being a six-month old baby, which doesn't count. You don't have to worry about mentally occupying and entertaining a 6 month-old baby, let alone run after it as it careens down the center aisle, laughing hysterically. For a baby, you just have to bring three things: 1) Food (yourself), 2) diapers, and 3) seventy-five thousand pacifiers (because you will never be able to go into contortions to find the ones he spit out under the seats).

I didn't fly for a hundred million hours enclosed in a tiny space with itty bitty lavatories, with a seven year old, a four year old and a two-and-a-half year old, who are brilliant and precocious and also special needs (not necessarily in that order). And--darn it!--we forgot to hire a clown, juggler and magician to fly with us.

So this is going to be an experience, to say the least. My husband, who deserves a medal for coordinating seven different itineraries for family members who were arriving and leaving on different dates and from different locations, did a yeoman job (what's a yeoman, anyway?) in juggling all the flight plans.

He even chose-cleverly, I might add-seats for us in a "head 'em off at the pass" configuration, with two seats in three rows, one behind the other: one adult and a kid in each row--a great attack plan, if you ask me. You never, ever want to put two kids together with only one adult; the kids will win, every time!

So it might be a while before I blog again, even after we arrive b'Eretz HaKodesh, firstly, because we won't have a computer in the apartment my daughter is renting, and second (or maybe this should be first), I'll be too busy changing diapers, reading bedtime stories, checking on wedding preparations and pulling bubble bum out of my hair most of the time.

Wish me a nesiyah tovah.