Happy meals--- happy kids

We keep kosher. We eat well, really well, but there are some quintessential American experiences that we have not taken part in. McDonald’s food has not been part of our lives. Neither my kids , nor I have ever had a Happy Meal.

McDonald’s has been in Israel for a while. Not all of the stores are kosher. When in Teveria, we passed a kosher McDonalds, but we weren’t hungry. Most of the McDonald’s we passed weren’t kosher. We were told that the airport had kosher McDonald’s. My kids and I decided to send the last of our shekels getting kosher Happy Meals.

Clearly, we weren’t the only people who felt the same way. The line was long. service was slow. My kids had hands- full of agorot, left over from other trips to Israel. I’m sure the cashier was thrilled to count out the dozens of coins. I’m sure the people standing behind them on line were even more thrilled.

At long last the three of us shared out two Happy Meals. My kids ( aged 15 and 22) were thrilled with their Smurf toys. We began to eat the hamburgers. We loved eating them. Yes, they were gross. Yes, they tasted like old gym shoes. But we got to be full fledged Americans while in the Ben Gurion Airport.