Malls, ugh

[donutsweeper]

Spent 4 hours yesterday traipsing around one mall and another five today slugging our way through the Mall of America to find daughter dresses for her upcoming bat mitzvah.  FINALLY found something she's willing to wear (the majority of dresses, according to her 'looked like a tornado threw up on them') and weren't cut in a way to turn a 13 year old into a street walker.

What is with stores blasting music to the point you can't even browse without going deaf?   *sigh* 

Two gorgeous dresses bought (this one and this one), one shrug and one pair of shoes and my wallet's quite a bit lighter.  But, most importantly, it is done so at least that's something I can cross off my list.  Like my sanity. 

Comments

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

It's a coming of age right of passage thing. Here in MN they are important, but not over the top. In NY the parties after the ceremony were HUGE (like 30k huge with ice sculptures and whatnot). But we still have a lot of things we (as the bat mitzvah family) have to do to mark the occasion for the friday night service and the saturday one, including an oneg after fri (coffee, cookies and things after) and a luncheon on sat after that service and we've decided to have a little party for her on sat night.

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

I always knew of it as a coming of age/rite of passage, but in the past few years I've heard about families spending the amount people spend for weddings on it, hiring popular bands, having a huge catered party and such (ice sculptures, like you're saying!) I wasn't sure if everybody did it that extravagantly. I like the idea of having rituals to mark coming of age. I think that would be very meaningful.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I don't fault people for wanting to celebrate, but as the saying goes, it's too much "Bar" and too little "Mitzvah" sometimes. A LOT of people go way overboard

The addition of the pizza party the sat night is really the only extra thing we're doing, but she actually asked and she *never* asks for things so... *shrug* what the heck, we decided to go for it.

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

A pizza party sounds like a nice idea! It will be fun for her and delicious for everyone. :)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

:) I hope so! It's being held at the temple so it'll be cheese or veggie pizza and I made enough cookies for the Friday Night thing (it's called an Oneg) to have lots of leftover so there'll be dessert and we have a DJ (well, college student who DJs on the side) to play some tunes- low key, but hopefully fun!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

That does sound fun. You must have been baking a lot!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

30 dozen cookies/bars so far!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

I crown you Baking Queen!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*snicker* I also have 6 mini loaves of bread. And just might make more. Oh and I still have to make the challahs too.

The problem is I have no idea how many people to bake for or how much to make per person. The oneg is someone people can drop in and stop for a bite at after services. The problem is there might be 30 people at services that night, 130 or even 230 (although highly unlikely)

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, challah.

Well, if you make too much, your family will have full cookie jars for awhile! Score! (I assume most of these things will freeze okay?)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

*snicker* yes, they're all frozen now. My thinking was too much is not a problem, but too little? BIG PROBLEM