Having a holiday start on a Tuesday night is less than ideal in our home.  My clinic is on Tuesday afternoons, and, this particular month, December, I happen to always be “on-service” on the inpatient ward, which has two consequences – a full morning, and the possibility of going back to the wards after clinic, and cancellation of my other clinic, so that my only remaining clinic, on Tuesday afternoon, gets overbooked.  And, today, all my patients showed up!!!

So, I didn’t get home until about 7:30, and when i did, latkes were frying, thanks to my amazing husband, and kids were bouncing off the walls.  Ah, well, so we started setting the table, and getting the hanukiot loaded with candles to light the first candles…a bit of bickering later (and S lighting his candles a bit prematurely, before blessing recited), and we had them lit.  J was disappointed that all the candles were not yet lit, and couldn’t be convinced that there were more days of the holiday, and he’d be seeing more candles on the menorah soon.

Dinner – yum!!

after dinner – dreydel.  Funny, because J ended up winning, getting gimel three times, and ended up with all the gelt, but he melted down – not sure why he was upset.  He seemed to want to get a particular letter, but i’m not sure which, or why.  He couldn’t be convinced that he was winning, and that was good (although big brother S was well aware that little brother J was winning, and he wasn’t happy with it!!).

we finally ended the game (it didn’t take long), and then each boy opened his first night’s gift – J got a Dinosaur Train that he had picked out last weekend on a shopping trip with Dad, and S got a cool set of glasses that made him look like a fly!! they were both excited, and the tears from the dreydel game stopped. whew!!

Dad was up for reading tonight, and he wanted to get them reading a Hanukah-appropriate story, but I heard Harry Potter being read, in the  end.  That’s where we are in this house, holiday or no…