Significant day

Dale's birthday was yesterday, and when his mom asked him how it felt to be 40, he said, "It feels like I got an iPhone!"  Which he did.  Happy birthday honey!  (We're celebrating with a joint party in January.)

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

I volunteered in Jordan's classroom today.  The lesson was about nouns.  After reciting that a noun is a "person, place, or thing," they were talking about, for example, a book.  Jordan's friend Theo said:  "Is a book a noun, or is the word book a noun?"  Wow.

Also overheard:  "But everything is a thing."  Well, yes, when you put it that way.

Manners

We got a call from the principal of Wedgwood Elementary today because Jordan apparently went on a kissing spree.  A friend said, "That's the best kind of spree," and I agree that it's better than a killing spree, and possibly better than a shopping spree, though the latter probably doesn't motivate the principal to call home.  Dale took the call, and he thinks the principal may have actually said it was a "kissing rampage."  He struggled not to giggle while lecturing Jordan on appropriate behavior.  Jordan claimed that the other kids were encouraging him.

Jordan is very Hanukkah-identified this year.  In a store the other day, Aaron was exclaiming about a rack of chocolate Santas, and Jordan shooed him away saying, "No, Aaron, we don't celebrate Christmas."  This is fine with me, but last night it went a little far:  we pulled into a parking lot that was decorated for the holidays, and Jordan said, "Boo Christmas!"  I explained to Jordan that it was very bad manners to say "boo" to someone else's holiday, and how sad would it be if someone said "Boo Hanukkah"?  (Though "Boo Halloween" might be fine.)  (And I have relatives that might gladly say "Boo Christmas" along with him.)

Hanukkah, part I

We have been having a bang-up Hanukkah so far!  The first night, we celebrated with just the four of us, with the special food being donuts.  You knew donuts were traditional for Hanukkah, right?  Anything fried.  In Israel, they especially go for warm jelly donuts (sufganiyot).  We each had our favorite from Top Pot Donuts right down the street.  Then, we spent entirely too long assembling .... drum roll please .... bunk beds!

The boys are thrilled.   The first time Jordan climbed up to the top bunk, he said, "It's like the view from the Space Needle!"  He had spent a few days in advance selling Aaron on the advantages of the bottom bunk.  This is working out fine; the bottom is more appropriate for Aaron anyway, and down there you can make a blanket fort.  It's such an improvement in their room - neater, more floor space, and less trampoline action.

The second night, we celebrated with a work friend of mine from North Dakota.  There is not a lot of Hanukkah in North Dakota, I gather, nor in Iowa where he used to live, and he really enjoyed hearing Jordan tell the Hanukkah story.  (I noticed with pleasure that our temple has taught Jordan that the eight-days-of-oil bit is the "story miracle," and the real miracle is the survival of the Jewish people and culture in the face of both assimilation pressure and a military threat.)  Our friend had also never had latkes before, and he loved them.  I make a good latke.

The third night we attended a fun Hanukkah party at the home of some Temple friends of ours.  Most everyone else was neighbors and school friends of theirs (and mostly not Jewish... this is Seattle, after all).  I was especially impressed by their caviar dish.  I didn't take a photo of it but it was just like this one.  When I complimented the hosts, they laughed that the caviar dish had been in some sense the whole inspiration for the party - they had to come up with some excuse to use it.

Tonight is the Temple Hanukkah party and it should be a lot of fun, with more latkes, a magician, games, singing, etc.  I spent this morning in the Temple kitchen with a dozen other grownups and another dozen seventh graders, preparing 500 latkes for the big event.  It was a great time!

All this and we still have four nights to go!

Last year, we did both Hanukkah and Christmas, because Christmas was important to Dale growing up.  I was fine with that.  Upon reflection, however, we decided that both holidays was just too much.  So this year, we explained to Jordan that Hanukkah is our holiday and Christmas is other people's holiday.  He showed no signs of trauma.  (We don't think there's much need to prep Aaron; he is more in the moment.)  To distract from the hoopla associated with December 25, we have arranged to fly to San Francisco on that day.  My family is very low on hoopla.  Dad said something like, "We don't even have any hoop here, much less la."

Good fences

The fence on the east side of our backyard was in serious need of repair.  There's no clarity about whose fence it is.  We were more than willing to fix it, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.  Then we found that our neighbor had fixed it.  How very nice!  Jordan wrote him a thank-you card.

True enough

Driving home from somewhere the other day, Aaron was nattering away in the back seat as he often does.

A: Daddy don't drive on the sidewalk.  That would be very bad.  Just drive on the road.  Stay on the straight road.  Because if you drive on the sidewalk you might bump into somebody or break our car.  So just stay on the road.  The road is for cars.  The sidewalk is not for cars.  So don't drive up on the sidewalk.  You could hit a tree or a person or something like that.  Just stay on the road.  [..... ad infinitum.  After a while, I admit I tuned him out and restarted a conversation with Dale:]
R: Did you hear Jessica saying how their school doesn't have much of a playground?  [or something]
A: And now I am saying things that are boring to you guys.

We have fun wherever we go

Explaining to Jordan how we will spend the day today:

R: This morning you have religious school, and then this evening there is a Hanukkah party at Temple.
J: That means I get to go to Temple twice today.
R: True!  Good thing it's fun.  Good thing it's not ... Hm.
J: What?
R: I was trying to think of somewhere that we go that is no fun at all, so that I could say, "Good thing it's not (blank)."  But I can't think of anywhere that we go that is no fun at all.
J: I know!
R: What?
J: A coffee shop that had only coffee.  That would be no fun at all for me.

Since we've never been forced to go to such a terrible coffee shop, it seems like we must have a pretty good life.