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December 19, 2006
Spin, Little LC Dreidels, Spin!
Happy Hanukkah!
A joyous Festival of Lights to you all! We're in the middle of the fabulous eight day extravaganza that commemorates the Jews taking back one of those early temples (the first? the second?) from either the Greeks or the Syrians or something. Honestly, I can't remember this stuff anymore. Besides, it's mainly an excuse to haul out my mother's brisket recipe, get my friend Carol to start grating potatos for her fabulous latkes and tell everyone that I'm eating jelly doughnuts because it's part of my religious expression. Truly, should a litle lard get between a girl and her spiritual self? I think not! And I have the hips to prove it!
Seriously, though, for some reason, this year I am actually enjoying the holidays. I think it's possible it might be Alesia's fault. She keeps being relentlessly holidayarrific and it appears to be contagious. Last night, after we lit the Hanukkah candles and the boys received their electric toothbrush with a modicum of enthusiasm that actually surprised me, we baked sugar cookies and frosted them, set up and decorated our pathetic artifical tree while listening to Christmas music and then played a board game. It was fabulous.
It was, in fact, so fabulous that I want to try and repeat it tonight. And tomorrow. Or, at the very least, make sure it becomes a tradition every year. And there, I think, lies the key to sustaining this joyous feeling for the next two weeks and perhaps having it return next year. I need to find some family traditions that I like.
This year, we had a repeat of what one friend refers to as Latkepalooza. We squoze 23 people into my less than 1700 sq. ft. house on Friday for brisket and latkes. I played the Adam Sandler Hanukkah song on my autoharp as the kids opened presents and I only said the prayers over the candles that don't make me cry. The first year that we did this, my mother was actually still well enough to make the brisket (and I think there were only 15 of us). I've been letting this slide and had so much fun doing it again, I can't remember why I let it go. It's definitely a keeper.
One I'd like to let slide is Cowboy's annual speeding ticket on the way to his mother's on Christmas Eve. It's expensive and, honestly, I don't get much from it.
How about you? Which family traditions do you treasure and which do you want to trash?
Posted by Eileen at 7:00 AM | Comments (11)
Comments
I love getting together with my friends for the holidays. From my legendary oranmanet swap on the first Sunday in Dec to my wonderful surprise birthday party this past Sunday nite its been a grand old time. Except for the part where I stagger out of bed the next morning and wonder why I still haven't got the last 10,000 words done on my book.
We also have a beautiful church service in the Moravian Church called the Love Feast where we actually get to eat during the service. We're served coffee and a bun and then the children sing a song called morning star and we all light candles. Lovely. And this year we get to go on Christmas eve since we're celebrating Christmas in our own home. Yay us!
Posted by: Cindy at December 19, 2006 8:33 AM
OK, now I'm having a serious hankering for latkes . . .
I truly treasure the WASP holiday tradition of knocking back enough drinks to enable us to successfully pretend that everyone is getting along just fine, thankyouverymuch.
Posted by: Whitney at December 19, 2006 9:24 AM
My family decided a few years back to stop getting each other "real" gifts. We now do "joke" gifts which have hints attached to them. We sit around for hours trying to guess the gifts. So much fun! My sister, the doctor, loves crazy pens. Last year, she got a "pull my finger" pen. You can imagine what it does!
Posted by: Katy at December 19, 2006 9:51 AM
Katy, very classy! I considered buying the finger shaped nose-hair trimmer for the same reason.
Whitney, you would have fit right in at Latkepalooza. Cowboy thinks we went through about eight bottles of wine. Or, as he said holding out the corks for me as we were cleaning up, "gooood party."
LC Eileen
Posted by: Eileen ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.literarychicks.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 19, 2006 11:39 AM
Yay!! I spread holiday cheer!! Just wait till A CHRISTMAS STORY arrives . . .
Posted by: Alesia Holliday at December 19, 2006 12:04 PM
You're gonna shoot your eye out! Farararara Rararara
Posted by: cindy at December 19, 2006 1:24 PM
I'm with Whitney -- I'm no WASP, but I've found that I get through the holidays in a much better mood if I have a poinsettia cocktail in my hand. And I have a new drink recipe that uses pomegranate juice, so it's practically health food, really...
Posted by: Rebecca at December 19, 2006 7:22 PM
Ooh. A friend made pomegranate martinis for us a few months ago. Totally killer!
LC Eileen
Posted by: Eileen at December 20, 2006 1:48 PM
mmmm Latkes. Yum. I feel it is vital we break down the differences in our religious backgrounds by sharing the fat laden treats that bind us all together.
Have a great holiday
Posted by: Eileen at December 20, 2006 5:34 PM
What? No one's going to ask Scooter about the autoharp? Do you have video of you doing the Hannukah song on the autoharp? If so, please, please, please send it to me. I want to start a tradition of watching Scooter play the Hannukah song on the autoharp. It seems like exactly the tradition that would fly really well in this house.
Latkepalooza. Just when I think I can't possibly adore you more, you come up with stuff like this. :)
Posted by: Lani at December 20, 2006 8:36 PM
There is NO video of me playing the autoharp and if I have anything to say about it, there never will be. You'll have to fly out to California to see it first hand. :-)
I can't take credit for Latkepalooza. Well, I can take credit for cooking it, just not naming it. Rachel gets the kudos for that. And for giving me a fabulous copy of a book called "Yiddish with Dick and Jane." See Jane schlep. Schlep, Jane, Schlep!
LC Eileen
Posted by: Eileen at December 21, 2006 4:20 PM
