Happy Hanukkah - The Fifth Night

We're on the downward slope.  There are more days behind us than waiting ahead, and the candles are stark reminders. It's the middle, and the special here-we-go-again feeling is starting to fray around the edges.

TBG and I are waiting til half time to light candles.

Light candles.  There ought to be a the in the middle, but that's not how my Grandma said it. It's like a glazel tay... my Zaydeh's tea in a glass mug, sipped through a sugar cube held between his teeth.  I never make a cup of hot tea without calling it a glazel tay in my head.  The drink starts to work its magic before it ever passes my lips; my grandfather is sitting beside me.

But, I digress.  That's not unusual this year.  The holidays are mostly about memories.  Is that a function of age?  Is it that my kids are adults and my grandkid is blessedly unaware of the importance of gifts?

Big Cuter and I shopped together for essentials-which-were-his-holiday-gifts and he took them back with him after Thanksgiving.  He's not concerned that there won't be anything under the tree; he knows me well enough to know that socks, at least, will be waiting for him.  But the days of towers brightly wrapped wonderfulness have gone.  We miss them, but feel no need to replicate them.

The kids were raised half-and-half, and I'm willing to collect tchotchkes and decorate at any season, but the time between the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the second of  January is special.

It's our Annual Holiday Celebration Tour: whenever any two parts of our family come together we celebrate the holidays ... any and all of the holidays on The Tour.

I have gifts for FlapJilly and her parents, Christmas boxes with Hanukkah cards and some combination thereof of tissue paper. We'll eat latkes and talk about Santa, because there are a lot of them in my house right now.  No one will be confused.  Everyone will smile. 

I learned all about the melting pot that is my version of America when I was in 4th grade.  We all brought something to the stew, and together we blended into Americans,  There were no History Months celebrating our differences; there were Thanksgiving Feasts celebrating a commingling of cultures.  

I like to think that FlapJilly is the latest and tastiest serving of our fondue yet.

Fondue, heated over flames.... and I have somehow managed to bring this back to the Hanukkah lights.  

*****

I'll be posting all through the holiday, so don't forget to come back on Saturday and Sunday, too.