Happy Hanukkah...

Hanukkah came "early" this year, and we celebrated a couple of ways: on the Friday before the first night, Rachel and I attended a brisket-and-latkes dinner at the synagogue, and then her chorus performed. At the dinner, she impressed a former president of Temple Rodef Shalom, Hannah Moore, by her inquisitive questions, one of which was, "How old are you?" (I had to tell her that that's not a very polite question to ask adults). I was also very impressed that Rachel made a point of getting me some dessert and a drink -- she always thinks of Drew and me when we go to these things.

On Sunday before Hebrew school, I volunteered to help heat up and serve latkes to the late classes (11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) and ended up directing everyone because no one seemed very organized (a pattern with synagogue events, I am finding out). I got to peek in on Rachel making a beautiful painted wooden menorah, which we decided to use for OUR eight nights of Hanukkah. It now resides in our bookcase of religious books, next to the rest of our menorahs.

Afterward, Rachel's chorus performed in a local park. I ended up, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, inviting her friend Dani, her parents, and Dani's younger sister, Jordan (she's around 5 or so) to our first-night-of-Hanukkah dinner. Luckily we had enough food -- I had planned on duck and latkes. (I watched Rachel perform in the park; it was cold, so I bought both of us some hot chocolate.) Dani and her family came by around 6:30 and we had a riotous time; Dani's parents, Peter and Stacy, bought dessert (store-bought cookies and apologies for not brining anything homemade because they hadn't had time), the duck was perfect and I finished the latkes in time to be able to join the others just as they were finishing up. Peter, a gourmand (his brother runs a fancy restaurant in California with some famous chef), said the latkes were the best he'd ever tasted. So, it was a great success and we have been invited to their house for a large dinner party at the end of January.