Hanukkah party!

We had a great time this afternoon/evening at a Hanukkah party at the house of Rachel's friend Lila Anne. One of these days I'll get around to posting pictures. I brought homemade sufganyiot and, boy, were they a big hit! I had to cut some corners on timing of the dough to rise, but I actually followed directions and pinched the edges of the dough together, so the jelly stayed inside. People were anticipating them and when they tasted them they kept asking me questions about if I REALLY made them from scratch, how I did it, how much better homemade donuts are than real ones (I have to disagree on that last point, though). The sufganyiot I make taste like beignets, especially since I douse them in enough powdered sugar to provide snow for an entire showing of "Nutcracker."

It was a fun time, even if one of the little girls at the party asked me if I was Rachel's grandma. OUCH!

Anyway...the girls had fun running around and shrieking. There were some boys there, too, but they were a little older and clearly outnumbered. At one point Drew emerged from Lila's bedroom to announce that the room was dark, Lila and Rachel were in Lila's old crib, and they were heading to China. To do what? Who knows??

When we got home Rachel opened her present from PopPop -- the movie "Beauty and the Beast." She was so excited that she insisted on racing upstairs, where I was working, to show me. "WOW!" she said. "I can take it to school for MOVIE DAY!" I told her it was a great movie; Drew and I had seen it years ago before we even thought of having kids.

And PopPop, you will appreciate this: As she was getting ready to go to bed, Rachel walked over to your picture on the bookcase and said, "Thank you for the movie, PopPop!" and gave you a little kiss.