Nineteen

Remember last year, when my youngest son turned 18 and celebrated the day at home with his mum and dad because we were in lockdown? Well, this year he turned 19 and spent the day - and the rest of the week - in the company of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), where he is currently doing his compulsory service. He came home at the weekend though and we were able to spoil him a little bit then.

My youngest son enlisted back in August and is now a tank driver. The army is pretty much his life for the moment. I wanted to make his birthday card different to his Giyus Kal ("Have an easy call-up") card. This time I showed him with short hair. The army requires him to keep his curls short and even length, without layering. He is holding his rifle and there is a tank behind him. I also included the club badge of our local football team, Ironi Modi'in F.C. Even though he is somewhat preoccupied these days, my son still manages to keep an eye on what they are doing and even managed to get to a game recently. Finally, I showed my son against a stunning orange sunset. He's got a good eye for photography and has sent us a few great shots of tanks in the desert since his service began.

My son loved his card and squirrelled it off to his room to place it on the shelf next to his Giyus Kal card. He did point out, in the nicest way possible, that I had given him an M4 rifle whilst he actually has an M16. Now, I am completely out of my comfort zone when it comes to guns! I know nothing about them. In order to make the birthday card as accurate as possible, I whatsapped Mister Handmade in Israel to check which gun our son has. I blame him!

I now know that the M16 has a different length barrel to an M4 and the carrying handle is a different shape too. Will I remember this for another time? Probably not. I was rather proud of my efforts anyway!

My next mistake was with the tank. Apparently I cut out an artillery tank and not the type of tank my son drives. My tank was actually a great improvement on the one I had put on his Giyus Kal card but, once again I was educated on things I have no desire to know more about. An artillery tank has light armour and a bigger gun in a turret to fire at far away targets. Tanks have heavy armour and a shorter gun in a turret to fight other tanks.

My son loved his card anyway and the sherry cake, made by Mister Handmade in Israel, which is his favourite...

* This post has been shared on Handmade Monday, Inspire Me Monday, The Good. The Random. The Fun., Inspire Me Tuesday and Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop.