Nineteen

Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that my eldest son became eligible for conscription into the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) when he turned 18 and is now several months in to his service. Of course this meant that he was not home for his recent birthday, though we were able to celebrate it with him several days later when he returned - with all his washing - for the weekend. Birthdays in our family always include a card handmade by mum and this year was no exception.

Truth be told, we hardly see our son on the rare occasion he is home. The usual timetable of events is as follows: arrive home; hand over washing; sleep; go out for hummus and a cold beer with friends; Shabbat dinner with the family; meet friends again; sleep. It's okay though. It's good that he is so busy with friends!

I have shown my son in his olive green army uniform on his birthday card. He has a bottle of Maccabee, a popular Israeli beer, in one hand (though he tells me that he actually prefers Israel's more popular Goldstar) and a plate full of hummus in the other hand. Of course his passion for Arsenal Football Club remains. I had to include the Arsenal crest on his card. A blue number 19 marks his age.

There was cake too, decorated with lots of buttercream icing and chocolate buttons covered with hundreds and thousands. We had dinner out and a beer together as well, though as you can see from the photo, we have rather different tastes for our favourite tipple!

* This post has been shared on Mix it up Monday!, The Weekly Link Up, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday), Inspire Me Tuesday and Creatively Crafty.