what's cooking?

I honestly don't know how it happens-one moment you're serving Thanksgiving dinner and cleaning up and then suddenly-WHAM!  One of the grandkids ask if you're going to make latkes and donuts for Hanukkah.

This year it seems that the two events are exceptionally close together.  It starts this weekend.

Not that Steve and I follow the "rules" of our holiday all that "religiously".  But the kids (our kids, not the dividends) love potato latkes and homemade applesauce.  In case you're wondering-I've been known on several of these Hanukkah dinners to serve the latkes with a main course of pork loin of roast-so I don't judge how others create their own holiday menus.

Just so you know, I did manage to already secure our box of very lovely beeswax candles.  Now I just have to take out our one decoration (also known as the menorah) and have Steve do the candle ceremony-even if it's only for the two of us and the fur kids.

Recently I did get a fun idea about how to better start off the 8 days involved:  The local Chabad and Home Depot decided to get together and have a children's workshop and party.  The kids will be making their own menorah's and having special treats.  The boys will get Home Depot orange aprons and if not donuts, probably Star of David cookies.

I'll report back to you all on how it turns out, hopefully with some pictures of the boys with their creations.

The holidays are cause for celebration.  I'm very laid back on interpretation on most but I do find that it's important for the kids to know something of their history.  Some are easier than others for us to accomplish. 

Passover is one of those labor intensive evenings in the Spring.  Every year my mom insisted on using her best china and silverware.  Everything had to be washed both before and after the meal by hand.   Plus that went for the pots, pans, roasting pans and Lord only remembers what else their was to do.  It took days to make the matzo balls, the soup, the items on the Sedar plate, hard boiled eggs, roast chicken, matzo meal stuffing and all the rest.

My sister and I would plead with her to at least use paper plates and plastic ware to at least cut down on some of the work. No. 

The problem was that mom would not just make it for our ever-growing family but invite curious friends and even sales reps and their families.  A couple of years we actually had to do this feat for a crowd of 30!

In those days, besides writing, I ran a pre-school and day care and worked 75 hours a week.  This was pre-diagnosis of my various ailments, but I was still exhausted and sore.

It was the same every stinking year:  my sister and I helped with all steps/parts of the meal and our husbands would clear the great room of its usual furniture and set up all the tables and chairs. 

We weren't even part of the service that was at first held by Steve's dad and after his passing, by Steve.  We were too busy serving and cleaning.  By evening's end, we 3 women looked like death.  Only to be told by one family member, "You all look lousy, you'll notice I only asked if you needed help once I knew you were done."

Yep, yep, yep.  After my last take on that line-it was my first after learning of my RA, I looked at my then 75 year old mother and said-"I'm not doing this anymore.  I can't.  I have to work and this next week I will be doing it while hobbling.  I know you want to do this, but this is just not in my wheelhouse anymore."

From that point on, Steve and I made a point of making our yearly anniversary trip during Passover.

Thank goodness we married in April.  This year we'll be in the middle of the Caribbean.

As for Hanukkah-can you say  Potluck?