My Favorite Missed Moments

Apologies aside I thought I'd put forth a list of my favorite moments from the past month and a half that you may have missed.

• The New Years Eve party - without a doubt our best ever.... I mean Michael singing Di Provenza? Yosef B singing Tom Lerer? Aviv and Louisa playing violin? Avram & I and Estie doing various comedy acts? Jen reciting poetry? Moshe doing magic? Joey doing Jeopardy? CAN IT GET BETTER THAN THAT?!?!



• Chana joining our family.



• The annual trip downtown to see the holiday windows... leading up to Jen having trouble seeing in the crowds until she meekly announced in a voice loud enough for all to hear, "could you please let me through - the don't let me out of the orphanage very often and I'd really like to see....". Oh and lets not forget Moshe stopping random strangers in the street to join in one enormous "family photo".


• Discovering Starbucks' Wild Sweet Orange Tazo Tea... I couldn't have gotten through my three week long cold without it.

My Apologies!

Oh it's been far too long and I'm so sorry. I don't have much of an excuse other than to say that making shidduchim for one's children is ANOTHER full time job - tacked on to homemaking plus any full time jobs held outside of the home. So I guess I've been up to holding down THREE full time jobs lately.
But I've been given a break! With tremendous gratitude to Hashem, we were blessed with our son Michael's engagement to Chana. Chana is the sweetest, loveliest girl... and I don't just say that because she already calls me "Mom" ;)

Yankele... Get me my dancing shoes.....

With overflowing gratitude to Hashem Yisborach for all the blessings bestowed upon our family this year, I am pleased to announce the engagement of our dear son Michael to Chana.

So it's back on the roller coaster, I guess.... some of us are still a bit woozy from the last ride! A daughter, a mother and a son - all in the span of 8 months.....

Feel the moments, feel the moments... that's the mantra. They are gone before you turn around.

How Adventurous Are You?

This is the question Aviv asked before coming to stay with us for Shabbos Chanukah.
He brought with him a selection of Chanukah Themed Sodas - "jelly doughnut" flavor, "applesauce" and "chocolate coin" flavored as well. Thankfully (??) the "latke" flavor arrived broken in shipment. That might have been a bit much for me...... The entire crowd sampled the assortment, while the more adventurous of the bunch (i.e. Aviv himself, lol) actually attempted a bit of "flavor mixing". I say they all could have done well with a shot of vodka added.........................
Motzoei Shabbos Moshe, Erica and Aviv stayed, Estie stopped by and we had a bit of a game night and a wonderful pizza fondue served up with garlic bread chunks. It was such a hit that it is definitely going on the New Years Eve party menu.
Sunday night I made fresh latkes for the second time and after that we went over to Yosef B's for an impromptu get together - loved the little chanukah votives... I am such a sucker for chanukah kitsch...................

Happy Chanukah

May the light of Chanukah burn brightly in our hearts and souls and bring warmth, comfort and enlightenment to all.

Mother in Law 104

Moshe took excellent care of Erica when she was sick last week. So much so that he NOT ONLY made dinner, but he DID THE LAUNDRY and baked cookies!!!
I emailed Moshe a "mitzvah note", telling him how proud we are that he takes such good care of our daughter.
Now his facebook.com status reads - Moshe is a mitzvah boy (go ask my mother in law....).

Ask me! I 'll tell you!!!

Life's Conundrum #127

How come Joseph can get up and be out of the house at 4 a.m. on Black Friday but can't seem to make a 7 a.m. shacharis minyan on all the other days?!?!?

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

THERE'S NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT ANYWHERE!

On Giving Thanks......

While Thanksgiving is not a traditional Jewish holiday, it certainly reflects many of our Jewish beliefs and traditions. It stresses the importance of Hakoras Hatov and family unity.

I have heard numerous times from people who seem to have very short memories for the fact that the United States saved countless Jewish lives during WWII and that gratitude for our nation is certainly in order that "Every day is Thanksgiving". Oh...... would that this were true!! How many of us truly take the time to give thanks each day for all our blessings? And even if we do, my answer to these people is thusly: Though we are commanded to remember Yetzias Mitzrayim EVERY DAY of our lives, Hashem still gave us a special holiday to commemorate it. (This proof also works similarly for Mothers/Fathers Day).

In order to make sure we are not appearing to schedule our "commemorations" according to a Christian calendar, we enjoy our turkey dinner on Friday night thus enhancing our Shabbos. Additionally, I am going to post a few things that I am thankful for this year prior to Thursday....

• I am thankful for my family (both near and far...and the memories of those who are no longer with us)
• I am thankful for Moshe joining us
• I am thankful for my good friends
• I am thankful for my community
• I am thankful for my cyberfriends/community
• I am thankful for good health
• I am thankful for Shabbos
• I am thankful for music
• I am thankful for little everyday miracles
• I am thankful for Hashem's artistic eye when creating the world
• I am thankful that the 14 lb. frozen turkey fell ONLY on Avram's toe and nowhere else ;)

Quotes Of The Month....

• "Erica G. is NOT walking through that door!!!" {when "whatever" is not getting done in the kitchen.... apparently it's a takeoff on some sports quote}

• "We put the FUN in dysfunctional!" {of course one of my kids says we put the FUNK in dysfunctional, but I prefer the first way}

• ... and the newly discovered mantra, "Remember! As far as anybody knows we are a NORMAL family!"

Sneak Peak at Jen's Birthday Cake

Shhhhh..... don't tell her! It's for Friday night when the gang's all here to celebrate.

Erica and Moshe are coming, as is Oma. Eric will be joining us. Estie is AWOL... If anybody has heard from or seen her, tell her the search party goes out in the morning.

The Parable of the Potato Kugel

Here's a question for you. Sometimes we give to people for purely altruistic reasons but in the end we realize that it doesn't have the positive effect on the other person that we thought it would. We tried .... we did not succeed.....

Sometimes we give too much and the people to whom we give don't have the capacity to appreciate and/or value what we do.

It's sort of like when we make potato kugel and we choose the wrong sized pan to load it into. What happens? It drips. It spills over. Is there something wrong with the recipe? No. We just chose the wrong vessel.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name....

I spoke to Binny yesterday. Binny is currently is South Africa on a kiruv mission. We met Binny when he was in Michael's 7th grade class and we adopted him as sort of a home away from home.

Binny has never forgotten. Neither have we. But today, believe me a day I needed it more than most, he reminded me of things long forgotten by me but not him.

He reminded me of weeks he had stayed by us , looseleaf labels I made for him, bundt cakes that I only frosted on one side because one friend of Michael's liked frosting and the other didn't (Hi Simcha! How's the new wife? :) ) and then he said the nicest thing.... He told me that our home always reminded him of the theme song to the television show "Cheers" entitled Where Everybody Knows Your Name. I almost cried. That's exactly what we go for here..... nice to know we succeed some of the time.

Identify? Who me??

Many Colored Crayons.....

After meeting and speaking with Louisa yesterday morning, I realized that I have never expounded in this forum on the theory of the many colored crayons.
We love to have Shabbos guests. We love to have many Shabbos Guests. We love to have many different Shabbos guests - and by different I mean those with different ideas, experiences, backgrounds and personae.
It's kind of like a box of Crayola crayons (disclaimer here: Neither I, nor anyone in my family is remotely related to anyone or anything Crayola... I just have very fond childhood memories of brand new boxes of Crayola crayons.... midnight blue, periwinkle and a whole host of other colors that have since been renamed in the interest of political correctness and/or the dumbing down of America {Show of hands... how many of you remember "Indian Red" [don't date yourselves...]}). But I digress..... the wonder contained in a box of crayons is precisely the VARIETY ensconced therein. I mean, how dull would it be to have an entire box of Navy Blue crayons.... what could you draw? What could you create? And yet, time and time again, I see people insisting on surrounding themselves with navy blue crayons or whatever colored crayons they perceive themselves to be. I prefer to put a whole bunch of colors together and see what kind of masterpiece can be created. Setting two different colors side by side in the box in no way damages the integrity of either color, which I think might be the fear of some. As far as I'm concerned - let's make that rainbow.....
{In answer to all your requests, I'll be glad to give you my opinion of which color YOU are in "private", though we all know as Moshe stated nearly two years ago, he is "whatever color Erica likes best".....and Lester is definitely Orange - no doubt about that.....}