Hanukkah celebration

Tonight I stayed late at work; the higher-ups were drinking wine and invited me to join them, and I was racing to finish as much as possible before vacation starts (Friday, technically, although the dean graciously urged me to work from home tomorrow because as a fellow commuter he knows how much time two hours tears out of my life every day). Anyway....I met Drew and Rachel at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center for a Hanukkah celebration they were having. The "J," as it is affectionately known, is in Southwest Portland, where Portland's Jewish community got its start. Several of my friends from the suburbs do activities there because it's easily accessible from the city and from the 'burbs. (I also went to a lovely dinner there last week sponsored by the Oregon Area Jewish Committee, where I am a board member).

Drew said I missed the worst part of the evening -- a woman who couldn't sing was attempting to lead a sing-along of Hanukkah songs nobody knew. Ugh. But by the time I arrived, Drew was trying to make Rachel eat some of the quesadillas he'd ordered for her. Luckily they were serving latkes which weren't half-bad (although Drew insisted mine were much better) and I ordered a salmon burger (dreadful) and Drew had hummus and falafel (decent, he said).

A band played klezmer music while Rachel colored out of a Hanukkah coloring book. She insisted on wearing a beautiful lacy dress that Anne gave her -- it's the dress in Rachel's preschool photo -- and she looked so beautiful half-sitting, half-lying on the floor, the skirt of the dress spread all around her, as she drew and Drew and I tried to talk over the music. I suddenly got a flash of -- Belgium? Poland? Did Mom do that when she was little, before her parents were lost to her?

Later, as the band played hora music, Rachel and I joined a hora line that danced around the room, Rachel laughing and enjoying the music. I love klezmer music, it speaks to me of family history and a connection to the past -- a connection I'm trying to pass on to Rachel, hoping she'll associate laughter and dancing and good food and rituals with beauty and peace so she will always know she can return to a place of comfort.

She threw a little fit when Drew told her she couldn't go into the pool at the J, so he scooped her up and we left. Too bad -- I had wanted to talk more to Max, a former colleague at the Oregonian who was part of the klezmer band, playing the flute. I had no idea she had that kind of talent.

On the way home Rachel sniffled and asked Drew if he still loved her. (He got very cranky at her little tantrum and her reluctance to eat a good dinner. Can't blame him).

"Of course, sweetie," he answered. "Mad is just temporary. Love is forever."

"Like friends!" she said, brightening. "And chairs!"

***

Tonight she pulled out the book of fairy tales and insisted on "reading" Cinderella to Drew. It is so wonderful to hear her little voice "read" a story, uninterrupted. When I came in her hair was damp from the bath and she was wearing pajamas covered with blue trucks.

"Even though I'm a girl, I can wear truck jammies," she announced. Then she followed it with, "Only girls can wear headbands."