17 posts tagged “holidays”
Hanukkah began at sundown last night. What are you doing this year to celebrate the Festival of Lights?
Submitted by David G.
Lighting candles and eating fried foods, of course, just like we did last year. Of course, I was on my own for most of the nights last year because M was away on his CQ det proving he could land an airplane on a boat. Because M's winter leave happened to line up with the holiday this year, we are lucky enough to be able to spend time with family and friends this go 'round.
We had dinner with some old friends last night, and they very sweetly marked the start of Chanukah with some delicious oniony, savory potato latkes. They also procured Chanukah-themed party crackers containing puzzling prizes such as paper hats, beaded bracelets, and golf pencils. (Golf pencils?) The amusement value, it was high.
Tonight we're going to celebrate with M's side of the family. I can't wait to hear how No Limit Texas Dreidel went over with my mother-in-law's friends. I know I'd have trouble bringing myself to ante up any of the precious chocolate.
Our Thanksgiving break involved--just as we had hoped--time with family and friends, some fun outings, and lots of good food. Oh, the food. The deliciousness of the food on all days cannot be overemphasized: beef soup with my folks on Wednesday, an epic feast at my grandparents' on Thursday, hoarded leftovers on Friday, mouthwatering brisket with M's family on Saturday, and brunch with some dear friends at one of our favorite Northern Virginia restaurants on Sunday. I think we'd better eat salad between now and when we head back up for winter leave.
When we weren't taking to heart the imperative to eat, drink, and be merry, we found time to get out for a few fun events. We met my sister-in-law, her husband, and his unspeakably adorable (and horrifyingly energetic) daughters at the National Zoo, where we oohed and ahhed over various critters. M and I had to leave before they stopped at the Great Ape House, though, so we apparently missed a compelling and educational display of primate table manners. (Go ahead, ask our nieces what the orangutans did at the monkey house. I dare you.) Our other adventure was less furry. The Grandsons were playing at Wolf Trap, just a month shy of two years after they played at our wedding. Getting to dance (though our dancing had more enthusiasm than skill to recommend it) was a great "almost-versary" celebration.
My neighbor, who very sweetly looked after our cats while we were away, just came by to drop off the key. It turns out that Miss Vera and Miss Val had an entertaining weekend, too. My neighbor walked in the door one afternoon and found toilet paper draped allllll through the living room. Nothing's ever as fun as something you aren't supposed to do, right?
Now it's December, and that's blowing my mind a little bit. I'm going to blink and it will be time to bust out the sweet potato latkes. How could anyone help but love a holiday where where you're supposed to eat fried food?
After yesterday's adventure with bad weather, flight delays, and spending eight hours in an exceedingly ugly and ill-equipped concourse at Miami International Airport, M and I are back from our week's vacation/honeymoon in the Bahamas. We had a great time on the island (fear not, a post with more details is in the offing as soon as I get my pictures organized), but it is wonderful to be back home to our kitties and our Internet access and our own bed and gorgeous autumn weather.
Now, off to make a grocery list and drag ourselves to the commissary so we can do important things like, y'know, eat. I'm itching to do some real cooking after my vacation-enforced break. As an added bonus, it is now close enough to Halloween that the purchase of all that temptingly fun-sized candy is now totally justified. Gotta get ready for those trick-or-treaters, and I care so much about their hopes for a delicious Halloween haul that I am willing to personally submit myself to candy quality control before we hand out the goods. It's for the children.
Show us the picture on your calendar for October.
It's from The Jewish Museum Calendar 2008. The caption reads,
Simchat Torah Flag
Poland, nineteenth century
Woodcut on paper, 6-3/16 x 7-1/2 in.
The Benjamin and Rose Mintz Collection, M 605
Speaking of which, M and I will be celebrating Simchat Torah in the Bahamas this year! There's even a synagogue there on the island, so we won't miss out. I'm looking forward to visiting the Luis de Torres Synagogue, which was named after Christopher Columbus's interpreter, a Jew forced to undertake a false conversion to Roman Catholicism in order to escape persecution or even death at the hands of the Inquisition. Fascinating history.
What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?
This QotD sounds familiar. My answer hasn't changed much in the past two years, although the aforementioned fiancé is now my husband, and he'll now drink teas other than peppermint. Spiced chai, no milk, and lots of honey is a favorite of his, but I take it sans honey because I'm strange and don't much care for sweet tea in hot or iced form. I'll also add that having a purring kitty on one's lap is another fine addition to rainy day activities.
We had some pretty serious afternoon downpours both yesterday afternoon and the day before. Lucky for us that they each occurred after we had returned home from Rosh Hashanah services for the day, but we did miss out on Tashlikh. Who needs to travel to a body of water when the road is looking distinctly river-like right outside your door? M and I might still go do our own version out at the duck feeding area near the botanical garden. I wonder what might be the implications of ducks and geese gobbling up the breadcrumb "sins" we cast into the water. Pretty wacky stuff, ritual, but Homo religioso (as we are somewhat whimsically denoted by those scholars that view spiritual tendencies as neurobiological imperatives, evolved as surely as the ability to distinguish color or develop language) seems to thrive upon it.
Rosh Hashanah is now in full swing, do you have any fun plans?
Not that I mind a little recognition of a very important day on the Jewish calendar, but seriously, what an odd thing for Vox to ask about. M and I went to services at our synagogue, and my admiration for our rabbi is ever increasing. This is the kind of man who can speak with equal erudition, cogency, and relevance about philosophy, the Large Hadron Collider, stories of great Hasidic masters, Apollo 13, and heart-wrenching psalms. Amazing, absolutely amazing! Our cantor is pretty awesome, too: incredibly tall, enthusiastic, and the spitting image of John Wayne... pilgrim.
L'shana tova to everyone celebrating, and may 5769 be a sweet year for you all. Now, go enjoy some apples and honey!
Show us what you want, but can't have.
When I was very young, I fell in love with dolphins. I was convinced that I was going to grow up and be a marine biologist specializing in cetaceans, and as such, attempt to spend as much time in the graceful creatures' element as possible. I had lots of nasty ear infections as a kid, and the tubes that were surgically inserted to alleviate the problem left another in their place when they naturally worked their way out. The hole in my left eardrum healed open, the silly thing. It's not a huge deal in everyday life; the associated hearing loss was extremely minimal (i.e., unnoticeable to me) and I just have to wear an earplug any time I go in the water. If I don't, I'm supposed to do a course of antibiotic ear drops--blech. The big thing, though, is that I cannot SCUBA dive. The combination of pressure and water just wouldn't be pretty.
The ocean still fascinates me, and I still think wistfully about what it must be like to experience true immersion in that environment. Last time we checked, surgically patching the hole didn't have a low enough risk-to-reward ratio; I still wouldn't be able to dive with it and I would risk additional hearing loss, to boot. No, thank you. I hold out some hope that surgical techniques will improve to the point that I could learn to dive after a repair, but for now I will continue to explore the water nearer to its surface and enjoy the incredible underwater footage from series like Planet Earth. My parents got us the complete series for Chanukah, and I can't wait to take in that mind-blowing imagery again.
Hope you're all having a lovely 14th of February, but don't forget tomorrow's arguably more important celebration of Half-Price Chocolate Day. M and I aren't doing anything special today (we did exchange goofy cards before he had to head out for an early brief; I wonder if he's in one of the T-44s I'm hearing overhead right now), but I'm not about to miss out on the abundance of chocolate the stores will be trying to clear out tomorrow. It's even better than the day after Halloween because there's not as much non-chocolate fluff to wade through.Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.
--Albert Einstein
All right, I'm off to spend some quality time with my Italian lover.
He may take me to exotic locales all over the galaxy, but I know what buttons to push to get him to do exactly what I want.
What if my husband walks in on us, you ask? No problem--I'll ask him to join in.
Our Chanukah definitely ended on a high note last week. Not only had I just heard the day before that M had qualified at the carrier, but he would be getting home in time to light candles for the eighth night! I hadn't expected him home until after the holiday was over, so getting to spend a third night with him was a fantastic surprise. By then, we even each had our own chanukiyah to light--M's parents sent us a beautiful glass one, along with gelt and a couple of dreidels. With excitement over M's boat qual running high, we were feeling a lot of "school spirit," as it were, so we made sure we lit the blue and gold candles.
Aww, our first Chanukah as a married couple. This was from a few days ago; tonight we light six candles (plus the shamash, or helper candle).
I have no pictures of the sweet potato latkes we made on the first night, since those disappeared too quickly for me to grab my camera. Things I learned this year: using a food processor makes the grating go much faster, and soft goat cheese is a delicious alternative to applesauce or sour cream. We're liking the variations on a traditional theme we have going here, and I look forward to seeing how our own traditions play out over the years.
