Thoughts on A Million Little Things (with spoilers at the end)

Photo from abc.go.com

Last fall, I kept promising myself I wouldn't watch any new shows. Then my friend told me I should be watching A Million Little Things. She explained the premise and I was curious enough to check out the first episode. Then I kept watching until I was caught up and could just check in on a weekly basis. It's marketed for fans of This is Us and it has all the feels like that show does. The cast, aside from Ron Livingston, was a bunch of unknown or vaguely familiar actors, as far as I was concerned. Fast forward a few months and I got a thrill from one of them replying to my tweet recently.

The premise from Wikipedia doesn't tell much, as to avoid spoilers:
Set in Boston, a tight-knit circle of friends is shocked after a member of the group dies from suicide unexpectedly. Each friend realizes that they need to finally start living life as they cope with their loss. The title is a reference to the saying "Friendship isn't a big thing – it's a million little things."

My take (no spoilers):
The series started out with Rome (Romany Malco) standing in his kitchen trying to kill himself with a combination of pills. Then he gets a call that his friend Jon actually killed himself and spits them into the sink. However, he doesn't get rid of his note, which causes problems later on. We learn about Jon through the eyes of his widow, children, friends, and people who are keeping his secrets. Ron Livingston plays Jon and we see him during flashback scenes. Jon's friend Gary (James Roday), who is in remission from breast cancer (yes, men can get it too), meets Maggie (Allison Miller, who looks like a cross between Drew Barrymore and Katharine Heigl) at a cancer support group meeting. He then brings her to Jon's funeral where she instantly becomes friends with Delilah (Jon's widow, played by Stéphanie Szostak) and Regina (Rome's wife, played by Christina Moses). Jon's friend Eddie (David Giuntoli) is having problems connecting with his workaholic wife Katherine (Grace Park), which leads him to seek affection elsewhere.

The initial thing that brought all four men together is that they were trapped in an elevator and started bonding. Jon made a promise to look after all of them and asked them to do the same for him. (At least that's what I remember.) There are other complications on the show, such as Jon's assistant Ashley (Christina Ochoa) keeping secrets for him, Maggie refusing to get chemo for her breast cancer, Eddie and Katherine separating, Delilah and Regina trying to open a restaurant, Rome struggling with depression, etc. I don't want to say any more as to not spoil it. There are some joyful moments as well as some heartbreaking ones. All in all, it's worth a binge-watch, if you haven't seen it yet.

Check out the trailer:

Spoilers below...







Not too late to turn back...








Last chance!


I wanted to share some thoughts with other fans, as well as say who my top five favorite characters are.

Favorite characters:
1. Katherine--At first I didn't know what to expect from her. She seemed quiet and closed off. Then when she started showing more emotion, she really stood out and I started to like her the most. She even helps Delilah, after everything that happened with the affair. I really hope she and Eddie can work things out, as I like them together the more I see glimpses from the past.
2. Regina--She's a very powerful and emotionally charged character and I enjoyed seeing her succeed with the restaurant.
3. Gary--He's another one who grew on me after a while. At first I was annoyed at him for pressuring Maggie into getting chemo, but there are so many things about him to love. Especially how he treats kids and dogs. And, of course, how devoted he is to Maggie.
4. Danny--It's nice to see a pre-teen boy trying to figure things out for himself in regards to being gay. He just seems like a sweet kid.
5. Maggie--She is complex and has a lot of layers, but she's just instantly likable. I love when she was teaching Sophie how to drive. I just find it annoying that everyone treats her like a therapist because that's her job. It's like they take advantage of her friendship to resolve their emotional issues.

I wouldn't say I hate anyone on the show, aside from Regina's uncle, but there are some characters I take issue with. Eddie and Delilah for not only having an affair but also being dishonest about who the baby's father is. Eddie is attractive, so it's hard to stay mad at him. I was also annoyed that even though he was the one who strayed from his marriage, he was also the one saying that he and Katherine should get divorced. And now that things are good between them, he wants to start telling the truth about fathering Delilah's baby. If he had been up front to begin with, it's something they also could have worked on. Now that Delilah is about to have the baby, this is going to ruin things with Katherine all over again. Also, I thought it was impulsive and a bit selfish of him to go off touring with his band. He's a father with responsibilities!

Delilah also annoys me with how she acts all helpless one moment and then all strong and independent the next. She comes off as "cutesy" in a way that's hard to explain.

Then there's Ashley, who has been shifty and secretive while also trying to help Jon's family. The letter Jon wrote was nothing that needed to be hidden for so long.

Everyone else is in a neutral, but good place for me, i.e. Rome, Theo, Sophie, and Jon.

The final episode of the season revealed some interesting information, such as Jon's connection with Barbara Morgan and the revelation that P.J. (Rome's new friend, if we call him that....there's more of a father figure thing going on) is Barbara's son, whom she was most likely pregnant with before she met Mitch. Also that Regina is adamant about not wanting kids, which I hope won't cause a rift between her and Rome.

What are your thoughts? What do you think is in store for season two?

Thoughts on Manifest season 1...with spoilers (at the end)

Courtesy of YouTube

Back in 2012, I read a really good novel called Down to Earth (reviewed here). It was about a woman who goes skydiving and lands six-and-a-half years later. She's presumed missing and when she returns, her relationships aren't what they used to be.

When my friend told me about Manifest, it brought back memories of reading this novel and I knew I had to watch it. I went back later to find my review and saw that the main character's name was Michaela, just like one of the main characters on the show! There's a story line in this series that reminds me of another book I enjoyed, One True Loves (reviewed here). And there's even a character named Olive in that one, just like Ben's daughter.

Anyway, Manifest is a fascinating and somewhat terrifying show. It makes me nervous to get onto an airplane again, knowing what happened. Even if it is totally surreal. It's produced by Robert Zemeckis, who wrote one of my all-time favorite time travel films, Back to the Future. While Manifest has an aspect of time travel in a future direction, it also doesn't have a way for the characters to go back to the past to fix everything. (Like not get on that flight in the first place.)

There are aspects of other series that I really like, such as Orphan Black (all the conspiracies and people being chased around) and Stranger Things (Cal reminds me so much of Will, especially when he's connected to other characters). I like how they explore grief, difficult decisions, health issues, etc. The main mystery is what happened to Flight 828 and its passengers for five-and-a-half years. It was a blip in time to everyone on the plane, but it felt much longer to those on the ground who missed their loved ones and thought they were gone for good. There's a lot of psychology to explore for both everyone in the air and everyone on the ground. The callings have both psychic and religious aspects to them and I know there's a lot to figure out with those. I liked what some of them led to though. There's a lot of numerology, as well. (I even pointed that out in my review for Down to Earth, oddly enough.)

I don't want to give too much away here, so I'll share a trailer for those who haven't seen it and then share some further thoughts below. So please stop at the trailer if you don't want to see spoilers. Even if you think the show is cheesy or bizarre, it's a lot of fun to play MST3K with. My husband and I are constantly making comments to amuse each other while we watch it. And we both like this show a lot!



SPOILERS BELOW. Last chance to turn back...
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All I know is that season two HAS to happen. Season one had such a cliffhanger at the end. Who got shot: Mick, Jared, or Zeke? Any guesses? Also, The Major is going to be Saanvi's therapist? Yikes! I really hope it was an innocent mistake from the hot doctor's end because I really don't want him to be a bad guy. There are enough of them on this show! Also, I was hoping Vance wouldn't actually be dead and would show up in the end. Is that too much to ask for? Cal's prediction matching the date that Olive and Ben figured out gave me chills. And I had a feeling Grace would be pregnant with Danny's baby. Not surprising at all. I still want Saanvi and Ben to hook up. There's so much sexual tension between them. Maybe now Ben has an excuse to make it happen.

Here are my favorite and least favorite characters.

Favorite:
1. Saanvi
2. Olive
3. Cal
4. Ben (even though he does get in over his head, his heart is in the right place)
5. Zeke: I know he seems shifty, but I feel like he should be trusted.

Least Favorite:
1. Mick: She basically screwed over her best friend when she slept with Jared. When Lourdes got together with Jared, it was under the assumption that Mick was dead. Lourdes is clearly not dead and I feel bad for her.
2. Grace: Who actually likes her at all? There's no love for Grace as far as I know. She kicked Ben out for trying to protect his family and now she suddenly believes him after she didn't the first 10 times he told her to trust him?
3. Autumn: Even though she helped Mick in the end, I still don't trust her.
4. The Major: Obviously. I think she wants to hurt Cal.
5. Jared: Cheated on his wife and now he's being a jerk to Zeke.
6. Griffin: Such a horrible excuse for a human being. He got what was coming to him by trying to abuse the callings.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the show along with favorites and least favorites. If it gets renewed, where do you think the story will go next? What do you think really happened to Flight 828?

No Day But Today: Thoughts on RENT Live

Photo from The Stranger

Anyone who knows me knows what a huge Rentaholic I am. I can't always remember why I walked into a room, but I can sing the entire soundtrack...if you let me. I've seen the show many times, the last two being somewhat more amateur productions at a community college and a community theater. I saw the movie in 2005, but was disappointed with how many songs they took out. So while the prospect of a live-televised production was exciting, I also had some reservations. I knew I would watch it either way. (And thanks to Fox.com's difficulty with streaming, I had to wait until the next day to watch. The upside was very quick commercial breaks.)

Overall, I was impressed. Rent is a hard show to pull off really well and the energy and camaraderie from the cast was prevalent throughout. This is the first time I cried over a significant character's death since I first saw it on stage (after seeing it so many times, I became more desensitized to it). I enjoyed it for the most part and smiled and laughed a lot, as well. I think a lot of people are being too hard on it. I just had fun watching for the nostalgic feel it gave off.

If you have never seen Rent before (it's only been 23 years, what are you waiting for?), you may want to first watch the filmed Broadway production. That one has the best feel for the musical.

Some other random thoughts, in no particular order:
*I felt that everyone fit well into their parts. Mark's mom seemed a bit over the top, but she was funny.

*Angel's voice was weak, but her personality and style made up for it in spades. I couldn't help but love her. She looked like Adam Lambert without the elaborate costumes on.

*Tinashe was cute as Mimi. I thought she sang well, despite what everyone else has been saying.

*I didn't buy into Roger on an emotional level, but he had a good voice.

*Jordan Fisher was adorable as Mark. I've never seen any Mark crying during "Halloween," but I love that he did that.

*Brandon Victor Dixon was amazing as Collins. He balanced out Angel's voice when they sang together. (Side note: I love the part in "I'll Cover You" when they're climbing the playground equipment and she jumps into his arms.)

*I loved that aside from the "Seasons of Love" soloist, Keala Settle (from The Greatest Showman) was also the support group leader and Roger's mom. She has a wonderful voice and such great stage presence.

*I thought the "Seasons of Love" blocking was interesting. It was a new way of thinking about the song.

*They left out a LOT of lines in songs and changed wording when it wasn't always necessary (i.e. the very beginning). I was especially annoyed that they didn't include the two lines that Mark and Roger yell at each other at the end of "Halloween." They also omitted the "Seasons of Love" reprise.

*I was surprised they didn't change certain words in "La Vie Boheme" and that they performed "Contact". My 13 year-old son didn't hear the words in question and didn't really understand what was happening in "Contact," thankfully. He said it gave him more context for what happened next.

*The set was cool. It took on the feeling of NYC really well. What was weird was that it was sort of in the round and if they put up a wall on stage, half the people couldn't see it. The same is true for any above-the-audience action. They kept filming things in a circle, which was hard to watch sometimes.

*I thought it was weird when people who didn't have AIDS sang part of "Will I?".

*I didn't like that people were screaming for the actor who played Roger when he was singing "What You Own." It was distracting. And Jordan should have gotten more audience love too. Just saying...

*I have to wonder how much was pre-recorded and how much was done live? They had to show scenes from the dress rehearsal if Roger was in them because he broke his foot. However, they all came together on stage at the end.

*I thought it was strange that they set it in 1991, since it came out in 1996 and that's closer to the "end of the millenium." In the stage production, they don't mention years.

*The actresses playing Maureen (Vanessa Hudgens) and Joanne (Kiersey Clemons) were perfect in their roles and really gave it their all during "Take Me or Leave Me." I loved Maureen's cow hat in "Over the Moon," but didn't think it was necessary for her to fly above the audience during the "mooing" part.

*At various times, they included little monologues about AIDS and homelessness. That was different from the stage production.

*I enjoyed the tributes and nods to Jonathan Larson. It's still so sad to think that he never got his own glory of seeing the success of Rent.

*The "Easter egg" of Mark's original shirt was so funny and awesome.

If you saw Rent Live, what were your thoughts? 

Stick it to the man: My thoughts on School of Rock

I saw the movie School of Rock back in 2004 and enjoyed it at the time. I saw it again about 10 years later with my kids and still thought it was a lot of fun. I had no idea it would be turned into a musical and wasn't sure what to expect from it. However, I was really impressed!

This past weekend, my husband, kids and I saw School of Rock at the National Theatre in DC. It was a surprise for the kids and my oldest figured it out after a while. My younger two thought we were seeing a movie. We got the tickets through TodayTix back when they had their Cyber Monday sales. The only drawback is that you don't get to pick your exact seats. They had us over on the far right of the orchestra section. We could see, but with some heads blocking our view, it was hard to get in the full stage.

My husband forgot he wasn't seeing Newsies :)

Here are my thoughts:

*I was surprised at the amount of swearing with kids around, both in the show and in the audience. I feel like the stage production was marketed as being family friendly, so I didn't see that coming.

*I enjoyed the music. Some of the songs were from the movie and some were written for the musical. Out of the new songs, I especially liked "If Only You Would Listen," "Time to Play," and "Stick It to the Man."

*While I love that they played "Edge of Seventeen" at the bar, Rosalie's song afterward ("Where Did the Rock Go?") felt kind of slow.

*The kids were fantastic! They had lots of energy and talent, great voices, and were funny. Billy said my favorite line from the movie: "You're tacky and I hate you." The girl who played Summer was adorable!

*The ensemble cast was strong, but it got confusing when some people played three different roles.

*We had an understudy for Dewey, Liam Fennecken. He did a great job and fit the part well. He was very likable and used a lot of physical comedy.

*The set was cool. There were a lot of different parts to it that moved around nicely to fit each scene.

A glimpse of the classroom, from The New York Times

*There were a lot of laugh-out-loud moments. Of course, some of those went over my kids' heads. I especially love that Dewey improvised a line about the government shutdown.

*At one point, Billy brought out a costume he designed and the mannequin was wearing a Rocky Horror shirt! :)

*The ending was slightly different, but it was still good. I would have not noticed the difference if my husband hadn't pointed it out.

*My daughter had the best time and was rockin' out by the end. She said it's her favorite musical now.

Overall,  it was a great show that my entire family enjoyed. It was hard not to clap along with the music! I recommend it for a fun day or evening out when it comes to your town.

Best of 2018

I've decided to take inventory of some past lists I've made, and do some updates. Hoping for more fun and entertainment in 2019!

Top Five Best Movies that I saw in 2018
You can see how many movies I watch with my kids these days...(and how few I get a chance to see in general. I'm sure Bohemian Rhapsody would be on this list if I had the time to see it!)

1. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (I saw it twice in the theater and cried more than I expected to the first time)
2. Ralph Wrecks the Internet
3. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (this was really funny and I enjoyed it more than the original movie)
4. Paddington 2
5. Mary Poppins Returns 

My favorite new TV shows (shows I started watching in 2018):

1. Manifest
2. A Million Little Things
3. You
4. 90 Day Fiancé (it has become more of a train wreck, but it's fun to talk about with friends and has generated some inside jokes)
5. Rise (So sad that they cancelled it after one short season.)
6. Cobra Kai


Top Ten Favorite Books I read in 2018. (Some may be from previous years or publishing in 2019.)
I've shared my top five chick lit favorites at Chick Lit Central (as Melissa A). I read so many amazing books this year (go to my Goodreads page and see all the 5 star books) and am sad to have to narrow it down at all. Links are to reviews.

1. The Wartime Sisters by Lynda Cohen Loigman
2. The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis-Graves (review coming soon)
3. Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda (I enjoyed the movie version, but the book was just so wonderful)
4. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
5. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
6. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
7. Everywhere You Want to Be by Christina June
8. The Stolen Marriage by Diane Chamberlain
9. The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson
10. The Way of Beauty by Camille DiMaio

Ten good things that happened in 2018:
1. My older son's Bar Mitzvah.
2. Jen Tucker moving to Maryland.
3. Going to NYC with the kids to see Wicked (my third time, their first).
4. Seeing Something Rotten with Adam Pascal as Shakespeare.
5. Seeing Waitress.
6. Making some new friends in the neighborhood and through Girlfriend Circles.
7. Trying my hand at canvas painting. I went to a few paint nights and enjoyed the experiences. I liked how my paintings turned out too.
8. Seeing my older son perform in musicals from his camp.
9. My BFF coming to town for a visit (it's our annual end-of-year thing)
10. My younger son getting into honors chorus and my older son getting into Tri-M (music honor society).

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year!

TV Review: YOU (contains spoilers)

Earlier this year, I listened to the audio book of You by Caroline Kepnes. I knew fully well it was going to be made into a TV series, but some of my friends told me it was a must-read and once I found out that Santino Fontana narrated it, I was sold. Check out my review.

Fast forward to autumn, when You finally premiered on Lifetime. I decided to give it a try to see if it was anything like the book. While most of the TV series followed the story, there were some new aspects that enhanced it. I'll talk first about the non-spoiler stuff before sharing some spoilers later on in this post.

The lead characters were the same as in the novel: Joe, Beck, Peach, Dr. Nicky, Benji, Mr. Mooney, Ethan, and Karen. That's mostly from what I remember. There were some new characters, such as Blythe (at least I don't remember her being in the novel), Annika, Claudia, Paco, and Ron. This time around, we get to see Beck's perspective. There's also more information about Candace (Joe's ex) and she appears in several flashbacks. Claudia and Paco are Joe's neighbors. Claudia's boyfriend Ron is abusive and a major jerk. Claudia's son Paco is an adolescent boy whom Joe befriends. Fun facts:

*Claudia is played by Victoria Cartagena, who also plays Lourdes on Manifest.
*Ron is played by Daniel Cosgrove, who played Matt on Beverly Hills, 90210.
*Paco is played by Luca Padovan, who was also recently on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and performed the opening number for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade last week. This kid is going places!
*Michael Park, who plays Beck's estranged father, is in the Original Broadway Cast of Dear Evan Hansen, as Connor's father. (He also shares a birthday with me.)

The casting I was impressed with:
*Penn Badgley was PERFECT as Joe. I originally wanted Santino Fontana because of his excellent audio book narration, but Penn just blew me away. I can't even imagine anyone else playing Joe now!
*I also liked Elizabeth Lail as Beck, perhaps more than I was expecting to. At first, I thought she looked too innocent to play the role, but she really brought a lot of emotion into it.
*John Stamos was great as Dr. Nicky, but I wish he would lose the facial hair!
*Lou Taylor Pucci worked well as Benji. He pulled off the pretentious attitude that made me dislike Benji so much to begin with.

The casting that didn't work so well for me:
*Shay Mitchell as Peach. She just didn't fit what I pictured for Peach. Maybe she was too pretty or acted too stuck up. Something about her didn't call out Peach to me. She just wasn't annoying enough.
*Zach Cherry as Ethan. Again, just not a good fit for whom I was picturing.

Like with the book, I still ended up sympathizing with and cheering on Joe, even though he's supposed to be the bad guy. Caroline Kepnes messes with her readers' (and watchers') minds in that way. Even though we got Beck's perspective this time around, Joe still came off as likable, especially because of how he was looking after Paco.

Overall, I was impressed with the TV series and how they adapted the book to screen. Some parts felt slow at times, but it was mostly captivating. I look forward to seeing what they do with the second season. Maybe they'll incorporate material from Hidden Bodies...

Before I share some spoilers, check out the trailer. All the episodes are on Lifetime's website, so it's not too late to check them out!



SPOILERS....

There were definitely some changes from the book in terms of how things went down. Like Peach wouldn't have seen Joe at the beach house at all, from what I remember. I think maybe she saw him before he killed her in the book, but it was quick. Beck found out about Joe collecting all her stuff when she was snooping around his apartment. Paco wasn't in the book, so he wouldn't have given her the idea to look in the bathroom ceiling. There was also more to how Beck was murdered in the book and her captivity dragged on longer. (The whole captivity part reminded me of Sweet Valley High, when Elizabeth's kidnapper buys her food from McDonald's.) Candace doesn't resurface in the book and Joe meets Amy Adam at the end of the story. I don't remember much about Karen Minty from the book, including how she and Joe got together in the first place. I felt like the part where Joe follows Beck to the Dickens festival comes later in the story, and she doesn't know he's there at all. I thought it was weird that Joe was telling Dr. Nicky about his "fictional" relationship and how similar it was to the truth, given that Beck also tells Dr. Nicky about her relationship issues. Wouldn't he eventually figure something out? That's all I can really think of for now.

If anyone else has read the book and watched the TV series, please let me know what other differences you noticed between the two.

A teenager in the house!

My oldest child is officially 13 today! In honor of this milestone, I'm sharing part of the speech I did at his Bar Mitzvah celebration a few weeks ago, but taking out some identifying details. Before I share that, I want to quickly share a few thoughts on how his Bar Mitzvah went.

I will admit that I was nervous for him, as he had a lot to work on and didn't have the same formal Hebrew training as his peers. However, he is able to sight read Hebrew really well and with my husband as his tutor, he worked diligently to learn his parsha (Torah portion) and Haftarah. He ended up only doing three aliyot (sections) of his parsha, but he had to chant everything and trope is challenging. We wanted him to do well with a small amount rather than get burned out on a large amount. That plan worked out well and he did such an amazing job. He also wrote his own speech and it sounded great. He was able to tie some concepts together and have them make sense and be meaningful. He even added some humor to it. He already has a natural "stage presence" and that worked to his benefit during his speech.

His celebration the following day was even better than I was expecting. The food was great, the room looked festive, and the entertainment was a hit (we had a caricature artist and a magician, both whom I highly recommend). It was great to have friends from our community, friends from out of town, and family all in one room to share in our simcha.

Without any further ado, here's (part of) the speech:

I will admit right off the bat that I’m not much of a speech writer. However, I am a blogger and I love making lists. So I’m going to do a list of 10 things I love about my son. It may give you “the clemps” so have a tissue handy.

1. He loves musicals. As if that weren’t obvious or anything! I enjoy watching musicals with him either on stage or as a movie. One of the most amazing experiences was seeing Hamilton last year. Especially since we had memorized all the music together. I had a great time listening to Broadway soundtracks with him on our rides to and from musical theater camp and playing Carpool Karaoke each time. I think the biggest argument we’ve ever had was about song lyrics from Into the Woods. He has since learned never to go in against a Broadway expert when laundry is on the line.

2. He’s easy to talk with. I end up losing track of time when I go to say good night to him and we get into a long conversation. A long time ago, someone gave me a compliment I treasure. They said “I love talking to you.” I could say the same about my son, but I want to amend it to “talking WITH you.” The conversation is never one sided and we even learn new things about each other.

3. I only hear good things about him from other people. Most recently, it was when he was volunteering at a local Kosher food pantry. Some of the women there told me how nice and polite he is. I’ve heard variations of great things from his teachers, my friends, and so on. It always makes my heart soar and I kvell each time he is praised.

4. He makes me laugh a lot. He does impressions, acts out songs, tells jokes, and does physical comedy, like in his recent performance at camp, where he received applause from pretending to faint on stage. He’ll have me on the floor in tears from doing an impression of my laugh!

5. He likes to read. That’s genetic though. At least on my side of the family. Even so, I love coming into his room and seeing his massive book collection, which is starting to rival mine. After I read Wonder a few years ago, I gave it to him and we had fun discussing it afterward. I hope we can do that with more books in the future. I recently bought him The Outsiders and am excited for him to read it soon. I love his excitement over books.

6. He’s good to his siblings. This is so important to me in cementing his future relationship with his brother and sister. I know they have their fights, as all siblings do, but he is really there for them as the oldest of three. He and his sister have a lot of common interests and I love how they bond. He’s always the first to comfort her if she’s sad. I love listening to his jam sessions on the piano with his brother. They also joke around together and will play nicely when they think no one’s watching.

7. He’s a great cook. I’ve let him take over baking desserts and making matzo balls for the soup. He’s learned other things that he makes on his own by just following recipes or watching web tutorials. He never fails to impress me in the kitchen. I love his passion for cooking too.

8. He does really well in school. I’ve never had a bad parent-teacher conference. He’s always stayed on top of his homework and he strives for greatness in all of his classes. It has paid off, as he received straight A's on his sixth grade report card and made it into National Junior Honor Society. That’s something to be proud of!

9. He has a positive outlook on life. It takes a lot to really bother him. He always sees the good in people and situations, even when I can’t. He’s genuinely happy most of the time and his optimism is infectious.

10. He’s the perfect best friend. I’ve been told that we shouldn’t say our kids are our best friends. However, it’s hard not to think of my son as one of mine, as he has all the qualities one should look for in a best friend, such as kindness, caring, loyalty, honesty, and a good sense of humor. Anyone who already considers him their best friend is very lucky.

There is plenty more I could say, but for now I just have a few little things to add.

My son’s Bar Mitzvah happens to be the same weekend I had my Bat Mitzvah. I love that we share an anniversary of this meaningful time in both of our lives.

It also happens to be nine years since we first moved to this community. Some of you here have seen him grow from a four year-old into the young man he is today. Others have joined us during various stops on this journey. We’re glad to share this event with our community and we appreciate how welcoming everyone has been to us this entire time.

I want to wish one more Mazel Tov to my son. While pride is not the word I’m looking for, I’m proud of you already! I know you’re going to do great things in your life and I’m excited to see what awaits you on your journey and take you to the chuppah. I love you so much!