Hey all,

I have really enjoyed having this blog this year - I have felt more connected to it (and the people posting on it) this February more than ever in the past six years.

And what a February it has been...

I arrived in the States in the last days of January - just in time to celebrate my adorable Grandmother's 106th birthday which included multiple cakes, nurses (coming to celebrate their oldest patient!), a professional photographer, a broadway musical sing-along, and lots of wet Grandma kisses - if thirsting for nachas, check out these photos.

A few weeks later I spent a wild week on a farm in San Diego with Harry, Zoe, Yoav, and many others - participating in this year's Avi Schaefer Young Leadership Summit. It was both completely strange to spend these February days with so many foreign faces in an "Avi context" - but there was also something really nice about building new relationships, learning, and Californiazing in and around an "Avi context."

Soon thereafter I was back in Israel for the annual Avi Hike at Kibbutz Ein Harod which for the first time was a whole weekend affair this year...something I felt super strongly on the hike both this year and last - was how strange it was to be the only representative of the "Brown Crew." To spend Avi's yahrzeit without any of ya'll around was weird and slightly lonesome...but even more striking was seeing that there are entire parallel and separate communities of friends marking this day in totally different ways...

And now just coming back from a delicious dinner at the Ethiopian restaurant that opened downstairs from my apartment - together with Einat, to close her Mother's gregorian yahrzeit...

Lastly - as I started this post with a celebration of life...I will announce that February earned a whole new meaning for me this year with the birth of the first of the next generation of Fisher's - my first nephew - on the gateway to February, the evening of January 31st.
Welcome to the world Yehuda Naftali:

Sending February love to all,

Jonah