2008 ends - welcome 2009

It's that time of year that calls for gathering thoughts and nesting in warm houses.





We had an evening of punch and christmas chocolates courtesy of Maria (Thanks Maria), after a stormy day. Makes you realize how lucky we are: to have a warm cozy home, with few imminent threats.


May the next year be peaceful prosperous and happy for ourselves and our neighbors, in the South in the North, and in our hearts.





The picture was taken a few weeks ago, at Ma'agan Michael beach, at a magical day, when the winds were easterly, and the waves sent sparys as the wind cut against them.



You are most welcome to watch Shalev and Bar at the martial arts show at Hanukka (the singer is Yoel - Shalev's judo sensai who is also Dany's sensai and mine as well)
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=6isbPqWQ9vU

Summer trip to fjordland Norway

What could be better than leaving the Israeli heat for a tenday, and trade it for the cool and wet Norway?

This is probably the right place to thank Vera and Robbi for planting the idea while they were here. Thanks guys!

We went on a glacier walk, saw a lot of fjords and waterfalls, walked and walked and walked - until our shoes got threadbare, slept in cabins and ate supermarket food to lower the costs, and generally had a lovely time.

You can see the pictures we took here
or in the frame below if you're reading this from my blog.

Or take a look at the Video:
Part 1.


Part 2.


Part 3.


Part 4.

End of school year 2008

Dear friends and family,

A hectic June and some of July have passed, and that means the end of school year, a special ending for us, as Bar has finished elementary school and will be starting junior high school next year, while Shalev has finished kindergarten and starting elementary school in September.


So, Shalev had the end of year celebration in the kindergaten, based on the theme of 60th bd of Israel.



And Bar did as well - a full fledged play based on the theme of, guess what, 60th bd of Israel.

(Bar as Theodore Herzl)

Also you can see Bar's end of year concert. Small, but of high quality performers :)


(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paCIy7uxF5w)



See more pics here.
This message is posted to The FinkelSternfeld's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

Fun stuff we did during the Pesach week

We did the Seder one day ahead of the rest of the jewish people worldwide, in order to accommodate my sister's family who were going abroad on the real Seder night.


Shalev sang the "Ma Nishtana" (Sorry for the somewhat shaky camera work):


The next day we set out to the Golan and hiked the Gilabun stream, spent the night on the Kineret shore and went the next day to the Yahudia stream.

Later this week we went to the Haifa children's theatre festival and spent a day there. the highlight was the Corpus group from Canada with their "A flock of flyers" performance, where they invited me in to their show as "Capitan Fiffy".


Shachar & Bar went to a Sci-Fi convention in Tel-Aviv, while Shalev and I went to to an amusment park for younger kids on the hottest day ever recorded ( +40 C ).

And today we're mostly vegging out. It's back to work tomorrow !


See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com

Shraga Sternfeld. 1932-2007

It's been a week now since my father passed away. We will all miss him, his humour and Hungarian accent. In a way he keeps on living in Ruthie & me - we keep repeating things he used to say, imitating him. I still remember his voice from the time before he lost it to cancer and needed a machine to be his "voice".

Dad, a very active man in his way, became ill with a mysterious lung disease 2 years ago which was never diagnosed. It's symptom was low blood oxygen saturation levels. He needed to breath oxygen from external sources (tanks or from an oxygen generation machine ). Last week however, after being hospitalised for 2 weeks for tests, his heart decided the strain was too much and gave up...
Having suffered from his illness, he used to say in his typical wry humour - "I'm willing to compromise on heart failure...". He pretty much got his wish.

A very intelligent, nice man, if sometimes strange - but who isn't ?
We'll always remember him.

Some pictures of my father I collected and uploaded can be seen here.

The power of N

The power of N: Novemeber, New Zealand, Nirvana.

So I went to New Zealand, and drove mostly on the left (correct) side.

Saw some whales, swam with dolphins, went on many walks in amazing scenery, went on a helihike (helicopter + walk) on a glaciar, went caving in the dark, saw seals and sea lions, had to give way to mother duck and her ducklings, saw penguins, and all in all had a great time.

If you want to see some more pictures you can visit my flickr page here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9660976@N06/

Shachar

New Year's eve

To all our dear friends and family,
Another autumn has come, and looking back on this year we see lots of excitement and adventures: outdoor hikes, violin concerts, judo activities, massage course, photography course, summer vacation in Jerusalem, some of us lost a significant number of kilos, some of us gained a significant amount of height, and one of us even lost their first baby tooth, and last but not least 36 hour Harry Potter Seven marathon.

All in all it's been a very happy and fulfilling year.

May the new year bless you with tranquility, peace, and happiness, health and a purpose in life.
Shana Tova ! שנה טובה

Love from the FinkelSternfeld family: Dany Shachar Bar & Shalev.


The picture above was taken flying over the beach in Arsuf, near Hertzlia - I spotted this guy writing "Shana Tova" in huge letters in the sand. - Dany


See more pics here.
This message is posted to Dany's blog on dany-sternfeld.blogspot.com