Being the only Jews in the room we had some odd moments. They started the evening off with a bible quiz about the birth of Jesus complete with pocket new testaments at each table to look up the answers. It was kinda surreal. We felt like we were at a bible study. But since we sort of think of Jesus as a nice misunderstood Jewish boy, it wasn’t all that painful really. Since no one was asking us to convert or anything, we were good sports about it. We even joined in the re-enactment of the 12 days of Christmas song. (Our table was portraying the 4 calling birds. I comforted myself by imagining them as nice kosher chickens. Buk buk buk, b’gawk !)
When it came time to eat, we did pass up the creamed chicken. Even though my husband is having an ongoing debate with our Rabbi about chicken. My husband thinks it should be exempt from the separation of meat and milk. His strongest point being that chickens don’t have lips therefore they couldn’t nurse, even if hens DID have milk. (It’s a technical issue with him already) So we had a lovely green salad and some roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli and french bread. And I chose a nice raspberry tart instead of the roast beef which of course was not kosher either.
During the prayer over the meal which was given by one of the Vice Presidents, I realized how differently Jews and Christians pray. The Christians go into a lot more detail about the actual outcome of the evening. (That everyone arrives home safely, the fellowship of the guests being just so, and we should be mindful of how much alcohol we are consuming and other such things.) We Jews generally just say the 'Ha motzi'… (Blessed are You Lord our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth.)
After that, we figure we are responsible for our own actions.
After the meal, oh my goodness, there was dancing. One rather athletic young man did a fair imitation of Michael Jackson including the famous hand motion in an unmentionable area. I was blushing over that one.
We danced one slow dance and then excused ourselves before anyone decided to do an impression of Madonna. (Although that would have been in the theme of the evening come to think of it) I’m not sure who would have played the baby Jesus though.
What a night.