You say Binyamin, I say Benjamin

Happy 2016! I hope you all had a fun time. New Year's Eve is not a big holiday here in Israel, specifically because the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, actually falls in autumn, a few months previously. However, as a family we didn't let it go unnoticed. Mister Handmade in Israel and I spent the evening with friends, and my boys, well they each had their own plans.
What have I got to show you for my first post of 2016? Well, I couldn't resist showing you these two cards together. Even though they are clearly made for two "guys" of very different ages, they share the same name, albeit using it in two different forms. By chance, I gave them the same coloured shirt as well!

The first card, for Binyamin, was given to him when he recently passed the educational guide's course at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Wanting to keep the card light-hearted, I showed Binyamin holding a clipboard with the logo of Yad Vashem on it. There is a certificate to mark his achievement and a small pile of books next to him. He has a badge pinned to his shirt with the Hebrew word מדריך on it, which means "guide".
As an aside, the name "Yad Vashem" is taken from a verse in the Book of Isaiah: "Even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off". Naming the Holocaust memorial "Yad Vashem" conveys the idea of establishing a national depository for the names of Jewish victims who have no one to carry their name after death.
The Hebrew name Binyamin means "son of the south" or "son of the right hand". Benjamin in the Old Testament is the twelfth and youngest son of Jacob and a patriarch of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. He was originally named "Ben-oni" meaning "son of my sorrow" by his mother Rachel, who died shortly after childbirth, but it was later changed by his father.

This little guy uses the English form of the name, Benjamin. Last year Benjamin was into puzzles. This year it seems that things have livened up in his house! He loves jumping and really wanted a trampoline for his fourth birthday. I modelled the trampoline on one that my own kids had when they were little. It was great! They're just a bit too big to use it now...
Benjamin looks very happy with his birthday card.