Holiday Traditions: Hanukkah

*Warning: Monster Post Ahead!*

There's something so, so special to me about family traditions, both carrying on those from my childhood and creating new ones for our child.

One of my most enduring Hanukkah memories beginning at a very young age relates to the method my parents used in giving our Hanukkah gifts each of the 8 nights. They would start with small gifts, and they would get progressively bigger until the final night, when the gift each of us most desired would make its entrance. To this day, I can hear the shrieks of excitement from my brothers and I on the final night of Hanukkah, circa 1977 or so, when I received my dollhouse (my favorite gift ever, which is in a state of disrepair in my garage, although it is itching for a remodel job to be re-gifted to a certain little girl in the next year or two), Greg received an electric guitar, and Brian received ...... wait for it ....... a waterbed.

More than the gifts themselves, however, our parents created an atmosphere of excitement each night by making each of us hide in our rooms immediately following the Hanukkah prayer and lighting of the menorah. We would wait with breathless anticipation, ears pressed to the door, until we heard the proverbial, "COME ON OUT, KIDS!!" Then we would race as quickly as possible down the stairs to find our gifts, ready for the carefully taped wrapping paper to be ripped to shreds.

So of course since the time Lauren could walk, after we say the prayer each night, she scurries as fast as a field mouse down the hall to her room to wait for us to summon her. I can just visualize her dancing around her room with excitement, hardly able to contain herself, and more likely than not, anxiously repeating to herself, "Hurry up, Mom and Dad!!!, just as I did oh so many years ago.

When we call her out, she quite literally bounds down the long hall to the family room, where her nightly gifts are laid out on the ottoman. The expression on her face as she emerges from her room and flies towards us is truly one of the great joys of my life. And with a little help from my camera, this year I was able to capture it.

Night 1:


Night 3:


Night 4:


Night 6:


Night 7:


Night 8:


This year, Norm's parents were able to be here for the first 4 nights and Lauren was thrilled to spend time with her Nanni and Pop-Pop Paul.




[A serious game of dreidel on Night 1]

On Night 3, we cooked a big Hanukkah dinner and my parents also joined us. I made a 7-pound brisket (in the past, I haven't been a huge fan of my brisket but this time it was actually incredibly tasty; it's my mom's recipe and I figured out I had forgotten in the past to marinate the meat for an hour or two in advance before putting it in the oven - oops). But the brisket paled in comparison to Norm's latkes. Man was on a mission this year and banged out a batch of crisp potato pancakes on his own in no time flat without any fuss and relatively little mess.


[Mom's handwritten recipe has been through several seasons and has the oil stains to prove it]





Love, love, love seeing family gathered around this table in the kitchen nook while dinner prep was ongoing.




[Not so patiently waiting for the meal to begin so we can get to the menorah lighting and gift-giving already!]




[with her La La Loopsy Crumb Sugar Cookie doll and matching apron]

After Lauren opened her gifts, she had a very special surprise for her grandparents. I wanted her to give personalized gifts to them this year, and what could be more personal than her very own artwork? Using a new set of watercolors, Lauren took 2 separate days to create paintings for each set of grandparents.

Working on Nanni and Pop-Pop Paul's:


Then it was time for Nana and Pop-Pop Mark's:


Lauren and I took the finished paintings to our local art store to select mats and frames. She was beyond excited to do the big reveal.



Voila!





It was a celebratory evening to be sure.





By the time we reached the last few nights of Hanukkah, Lauren had graduated to lighting the candles all by herself (she insisted and was oh so proud to be able to do it).





And her big gift on the last night of Hanukkah, which was tonight?





A Kitty Cat Park, something she saw in a catalogue and has been requesting for weeks and weeks. While not especially large in size (it has a ton of little kitty figurines and park apparatus), it was all she ever wanted (although her shrieks on night 2 upon receiving an entire collection of Wuggle Pets was decidedly louder).

So Hanukkah has come and gone for another year. Tonight before bed Lauren put on her sad face and said she was upset it was over and wished it went on for "a hundred nights." While 8 is plenty and we are on the cusp of some changes, I have every intention of doing my best to carry on the feeling of generosity and gratefulness that exists in my heart at this moment for at least the next 100 nights, hopefully more.