Every year, I’m grateful for the friends who come over to help put up the sukkah in my yard. They have a system: they arrive with their kids, I feed everyone, we hang out, and somehow the sukkah goes up. I wish my own kids were more eager to help, but it is what it is.
The hardest part is always getting the schach onto the roof. It’s heavy, and we’re short. Every year we struggle with it, and every year we manage to get it up there.
Once it’s standing, I remember why I love it so much. At night, with lights around it, the sukkah feels cozy. There’s something wonderful about sitting outside with friends and family, eating and talking long after the meal is done. Of course, as soon as it goes up, I start feeling the pressure to host people and make sure we actually use it!
When my kids were little, carrying an entire meal outside felt like a production. I started coming up with food that would be easier to serve and eat in the sukkah, like individual pot pies. I wanted us to enjoy being there without spending the whole evening moving dishes back and forth.
And then there are the sukkah stories.
One morning, I went to let the dog out before my very early workout and found the sukkah upside down, more than ten feet from where it had stood. The wind had picked it up and flipped it over. It was 5 a.m., Sukkot was over, and I thought, Well, I guess it’s time to take it down.
The first year we had a sukkah as a family, Eva was about ten months old. Nat had built it, and during a break from Yom Kippur services, I watched the wind send it tumbling across the yard like a giant die. I had Eva with me and couldn’t chase after it, so I had to find Nat. Later, Rebecca’s preschool teacher asked if it was true that our sukkah had ended up upside down on the driveway. Yes. Yes, it had.
I’m hoping this year brings fewer adventures with the wind and plenty of good meals in the sukkah: warm food, funny stories, friends, family, and time to just be together.
