Hanukkah

Today we made Hanukkah cookies (a tradition that I've been doing with Lili since she was one.) I love having traditions and I love how my children embrace them. Sophie is the one who will remind me what we did the year before. "We always have chocolate fondue on Christmas Eve..." she will remind me. Oh yeah, I forgot I did that last year! It's so amazing to me how comforting continuity can be for the kids as well as myself.

Today I was on a self imposed deadline - I needed to buy latkes at Whole Foods (the best - really peppery and divinely fattening), come home and make cookies with the kids and then take Harlan to soccer, and then come home and cook a chicken, blah blah blah. The kids were not cooperating. At all. In fact, they were ruining it for me. I started to get snappy and sharp and stressed out. Basically everyone in the house retreated to safer areas and I found myself alone in the kitchen. I started thinking about the "joy" of the season and wondered where mine had gone.

I put on a beautiful cd that I listen to at Hanukkah time. It's called "Festival of Lights" and it really is lovely. As the music flowed out into the living room, I took a deep breath and started rolling out the dough. Both of my kids came back and we hugged and we cut out delicious shapes and decorated them. I called Andy on the phone and told him I was feeling better. And I was.