
So far, with nights one and two behind us, Chanukah 2012 has been wonderful. We celebrated the first night at our shul's Chanukah party. It was really exciting to see such a big and enthusiastic turn-out.
Our little shul has been struggling along since the death of our beloved rabbi four years ago. As everyone knows, in order for a congregation to grow and thrive, there needs to be a big, happy and active cohort of families with young kids. That first night of Chanukah, it felt like we had it! Finally! Everyone brought chanukiot from home and seeing so many brighly colored Chanukah candles burning in chanukiot of all shapes and sizes was completely magical. Then, Ezra and Reuben performed songs with their Hebrew School classes, which felt like a sweet rite of passage.
Last night, Andrew fried up lots of delicious latkes which we made this year with potato starch instead of flour, on account of my fairly new gluten-free status. They were perfect and we all agreed they tasted just as good as always. We'll use the potato starch again when we fry up tons of latkes tomorrow to bring to Ezra and Reuben's classrooms, along with applesauce and dreidels.
Gifts? So far they have been simple and sweet and fun. On the first night, we gave Ezra and Reuben flannel pajamas along with a puzzle for Ezra and a stuffed raccoon for Reuben. Last night, they got (the first batch) of presents from Grandma and Grandpoppy: a perplexus for Reuben and a maze game for Ezra. Reuben has been watching Ezra play with his perplexus for months now, but, whenever he tried to do it, it was just a little bit too challenging to be fun. So, he was delighted to have one more suited to him. and seeing him cock his head while playing in just the same way that he has seen Ezra do is a very sweet study in brotherly imitation.
Onto night #3 of Chanukah 2012! Happy Chanukah to all!
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