Chanukah, the recap

For 8 nights we lit the menorah. And by we, I mean Z, who knows the primary blessing by heart. She'd take the lead in lighting the candles, leaving the last candle or two for her little sister, who was happy to finish the job.

But last night she was a little sketched out by our final candle, a lowly birthday candle pushed into service because we took hastily disposed of a broken 44th candle.

On Friday we attended the Family Chanukah celebration at Oak Park Temple, which includes singing, doughnuts and a long table filled with every family's menorah, and on Monday we fulfilled our obligation to eat latkes, gobbling down two boxes worth from Trader Joe's.

Thanks to the generosity of their aunts and grandparents, the girls each received one or two gifts a night, and the best-loved presents were something of a surprise. Three year old A went nuts for new clothes, oohing and ahhing and promptly trying on everything she received, from a 6 pack of Princess underpants to some adorable outfits from Gymboree. Thank you mom and mother-in-law for outfitting my budding fashionista.

It was a good thing Chanukah came early this year, because both girls were also gifted a selection of mittens and gloves (along with those oh-so-elusive mitten clips). And Z received long underwear, which she would wear under her pants every single day if I let her.

If underwear, mittens and clothes weren't exciting enough, A's very favorite present is another practical one: a hooded towel for swim class.

In the book and toy department, both girls thrilled over Disney figurines (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and a comprehensive Princess set that A immediately pressed into "rehearsals"). Z proclaimed her My First Sewing Kit, a box of Magic Tree House books and the American Girl Doll School set her "best presents ever," turning her nose up at the potholder loom I'd purchased for her as a "dumb gift that just makes me work hard to make other people presents." (She changed her tune a day later when we started her first potholder.)

Now that Chanukah is over, I can focus on the rest of the holiday season--which means figuring out what I'm going to wear to holiday parties, addressing cards, organizing a New Year's Day brunch and going to a waterpark! Yes since there's no good Chinese food in our area and A can't be trusted to sit through a movie, we're starting a new Jewish on Christmas tradition. We're going to a resort with a waterpark.

Fourth of July weekend

A parade. A block party. A barbecue. Fireworks. Brunch at the Signature Room on the 95th. Two too-cold visits to the pool. And lots and lots of rain.

A very brief seder

Even though I'd invested in special kiddie Haggadahs, tonight's seder was an abridged affair. We managed to quickly bless the candles, wine and matzo, dunk our parsley in salt water and make a maror sandwich, but very little of the Passover story sunk in over Z's whining about the meal options ("I don't like matzo! I don't like apples and nuts! I don't want soup!"). And while Z complained about how awful the food looked, A and our friends' kids, 5 and 2, were ready to eat.

We had matzo ball soup (and ran out of the matzo balls long before the broth was gone), two kinds of charoset (I highly recommend Epicurious' Sephardic charoset--it really looks like mortar and it tastes divine), Mark Bittman's Braised Lamb with Horseradish and Parsley and steamed broccoli (I think A ended up eating 8 or 9 "trees"). We ended the meal with a chaotic hunt for the Afikomen, a toddler dance party and this absolutely addictive Matzo Toffee, which is the very first Kosher for Passover dessert I'd consider eating any time of year.

Later this week I want to try Sara's Apple Kugel and a K for P granola recipe a Twitter follower emailed me.

A very granola holiday

This won't be the first holiday where friends and family will receive handmade gifts. In high school I was really into ceramics and everyone got a hand-thrown bowl or mug. In my twenties I knit, so elementary-level hats and scarves made their way into holiday care packages.

I've experimented with layered cookie mix jars, iPhoto mini albums, boxes of cookies (driedels and menorahs sprinkled with blue sugar) and years and years worth of homemade rubber stamp holiday cards.

But my list is getting longer, my budget's getting smaller and I need a gift that Z can help me make.

So my goal this year is to gift granola. I'm experimenting with recipes (a little Epicurious and a little Mom) and a test batch is baking in the oven as I write this. It smells heavenly.

Share your homemade holiday gifts at this Klutz-sponsored blog blast from Parent Bloggers Network).

Biting off more than I can chew

Selfmademom calls them the Hellidays, and I think she may be onto something.

I've always felt that one of the perks of being Jewish is getting to opt out of the insanity that is the run-up to Christmas. Sure, I'll send out some holiday cards, buy Chanukah presents for my nearest and dearest (I keep the list very short) and light the old menorah, but I get a giant star-of-David-shaped pass when it comes to hauling and trimming a Christmas tree, installing an electric Santa on my roof or assembling gingerbread houses for all the shut-ins in the neighborhood.

But still. Having kids does up the ante. Instead of just lighting the candles at home, I felt like I should take the girls to the Chanukah family service at Temple. After Baby A's bedtime. By myself. (Josh been at a concert every night this week.) What was I thinking?

Today we attended the holiday party at Z's Montessori school and our Chavurah's Chanukah party, where I ate way too many latkes. I volunteered to make cookies for both which meant three hours of my day was dedicated to rolling, cutting and glazing six dozen menorah, dreidel, star and hay-shaped sugar cookies. With Z "helping" (read: aggressively dumping blue sugar crystals, breaking the tops off of the dreidels and asking if she could eat more dough).

Tomorrow we've got two kiddie birthday parties, and next weekend there are two more. Is it just me, or are there a lot of December birthdays? (Mom and Beth, if you're reading this, happy birthday to you, too!)

I'm doing all my holiday shopping online

I don't think I'm going to buy a single thing in a traditional bricks and mortar store this year. And why should I? I hate shopping with kids. I hate standing in line. I hate bumping into frazzled shoppers or tailing package-laden consumers in the parking lot.

And honestly? There's nothing at the mall that I can't get faster-cheaper-better online. So, without giving away too much, here's where I've been spending wearing out my credit card.

Amazon, the biggie. They sell everything. Free shipping is a given (I don't have to troll around couponmountain.com or retailmenot.com looking for codes), and I save by not paying Illinois' sky-high sales tax. I've been an Amazon customer since 1997 (when it was just a bookstore) and I've never had a problem with their customer service.

Etsy. This fabulous shopping site is Ebay meets the Renegade Craft Fair. I can buy handcrafted jewelry, bags, dolls and so much more direct from the artisan and pay with Paypal. Prices range from ridiculously cheap to moderately expensive, but you can easily score a one-of-a-kind necklace for $25.

Not content with unique, handcrafted goods, I felt the need to get crafty myself. But not too crafty, mind you. I don't have time for that! So I created custom photo holiday cards at Tiny Prints and designed a t-shirt for a deserving recipient at Zazzle while munching a sandwich at my desk.

And don't think you can't surprise distant friends and family with gift certificates to independent places in their town. I've found restaurants, boutiques and spas (even those not part of a large chain) sell gift cards from their websites, so I didn't even have to pick up the phone to buy my BFF a gift certificate for a prenatal massage from Zenana Spa in Portland.

Has anyone else sworn off traditional shopping?

Cross-posted to Chicago Moms Blog

Santa who?

This is the Christmas I've dreaded since Z was born. She's three. She's a preschooler. And she's got friends with chimneys, stockings and jolly fat men on their minds.

Friends who believe. In Santa Claus.

Last week we were speeding down I-294 when I heard, "Mommy! Mommy, there's Santa!"

She'd seen the man in red on a carpet billboard.

"I'm going to look for more Santas, okay Mommy?"

She didn't see any more (it was the first week in November), but I felt the first twinge of Xmas anxiety.

How long until Z finds out that Santa's not just another colorful cartoon character like Frosty the Snowman, but the bearer of gifts? I can't just tell her Santa's a fake and let her spill the beans to all her little buddies. After all, I remember telling a first grade friend that in fact her parents were putting presents under her tree. She burst into tears and I'm sure her mother had words with mine.

Growing up in an intermarried family with a Jewish mom and formerly Methodist dad, we celebrated Chanukah and a sort of improvised Christmas. We'd hang our socks (or tights if we were feeling greedy) up and wait for my mom to stuff them with oranges, Chanukah gelt, bath cubes and the toiletries she'd collected from airline flights and hotel rooms. Then we'd sneak downstairs and fill our parents' socks with pennies and homemade gift certificates. If I ever believed in Santa, I don't remember it. But I liked raiding my stocking for treasures.

Now that I'm married to a another Jew, I don't feel comfortable celebrating even the most secularized of Christmas traditions at our house. Which means there's no reason to indulge in any Santa Claus fantasies.

So what to do? My instinct is just to explain to Z that Santa comes to some houses, but not to Jewish ones. I'm hoping she'll understand that different families have different traditions, and while her friends might decorate a tree and wait for presents from Santa, we light a menorah, eat latkes, play driedel and exchange gifts with our friends and family instead.

Cross-posted to Chicago Moms Blog.

Bah humbug!

The FBI is warning Americans that Al-Qaeda may be planning to bomb shopping malls in Chicago and LA. Fisher-Price is recalling yet another batch of toys for toddlers. And Aqua Dots, a toy on Wal-Mart's top 12 toy gifts list, are being recalled because they contain a date rape drug. It's so unbelievable you'd think it was an Onion headline.

So what's a mommy to do? I've already got a short-than-usual shopping season ahead because Chanukah is early this year. Last year I said the hell with presents and made donations to Heifer in honor of all of our adult family members, and I'm tempted to do the same this time around. As for the children on my list, I will be shopping for quality books and toys online and at local mom-and-pop shops like Geppetto's Toy Box and Berwyn's Toy Trains. I'll look to the Cool Mom Picks Safer Toys guide and the Lead Free Toys list maintained by fellow Chicago Moms Blogger Marcie Pickel.

And I just may join the Consumers Union's Get the Lead Out Advocacy campaign, which I heard about from my friends at Parent Bloggers Network. This grassroots effort is designed to let store owners and Congress know after a year of scary recalls, we need to get serious about toy safety. And food safety too, but that's a whole 'nother post!

Happy Chanukah!

We hosted our Chavurah Chanukah party yesterday in the Temple youth lounge (read: basement). It was perfect for the event since the kids had lots of room to run around and plenty of communal toys to play with. And there was a kitchen, so we could keep the piles and piles of latkes warm.

We're lucky to have found such a great group of people within our congregation. And Z's perfectly positioned among the kids. There are four children older than her, one the same age, and five younger (including two 6 month old boys born on the same day!).