Baby BoyAlmost a week ago, I received a new nephew. This picture shows the baby at about 8 hours old.

This is actually my first nephew on my wife's side. That side has been relatively consistent with having girls for the past couple generations until now. That is, until now. Congrats for breaking that 'stigma'. ;-)

In any event, this is my fifth nephew. My sister has four boys.

This weekend, we all (the family) packed into my wife's sister's home, the day after she came back from the hospital, to spend the weekend there. Basically, when an orthodox Ashkenazi Jew has a boy, the Friday night after that birth, a "Shalom Zachar" takes place. Basically, at about 9:30pm, dozens and dozens of men (some women) come to the house and celebrate the birth of the son. They celebrate by singing, speeches, desserts and lots of alcohol. Of course, the woman who gave birth is not in any mood to see all her friends and extended friends a couple days after giving birth. Nor does she necessarily want to host friends and family in her house days after giving birth. But nevertheless, it is done.

After midnight, the last of my brother-in-law's friends left. We helped clean up as best we could and then we hit the hay.

Tomorrow is when the baby gets a bris. Yes, a circumcision. Snip, snip. I'll be a tad late tomorrow morning for that event. If I can, I will try to take a picture of the exact moment when the mohel ("circumciser") does the snip. I will not take a picture of that area, instead, I will take a picture of the male audience, to show you the faces on every single male at the moment you hear the baby cry from the pain. We all feel the pain with the kid, just not at the same level.

Mazol Tov!