On The Last Day Of Chanukah

it's friday morning in the holy land. it has been raining quite heavily for the past few days. thank the Lord! i have been unusually busy. i have been doing tons of laundry. gal's mother brought over 3 huge batches on wednesday. her machine broke down and i offered to help her out. i threw in one batch and then came upstairs to make some spaghetti for the young couple. my friend michal came over for a chanukah afternoon get together and we had a make shift lunch. we watched chanukah videos on you tube for awhile and then caught up wth our soaps. my niece came over to visit gal and watch a movie with her. my sister showed up with a friend. they had been visiting the neighbors on behalf of chabad and talking about chanukah and distributing menorahs to those who didn't have any. they were supposed to stay for just enough time to have a hot drink. they left at midnite. michal had to keep both dogs snuggled in her arms for hours because the other woman was afraid of dogs. we talked about recipes for kugel, homeopathic remedies, and miracle stories of the late Rebbe of Lubuvitch for several hours.

suddenly, i remembered the batch of laundry sitting in my washing machine. i made a mad dash for the downstairs. i did another two batches and by the time every article of clothing was dry and folded, it was 5:00 a.m. my friend michal slept over and decided to go to sleep just after 3:00 am. the next morning she answered the phone, hoping to catch it before it woke me up, and then told me at 10:00 a.m. that gal needed me to babysit for sahar at 10:30 a.m. i jumped out of bed and had a coffee. i could barely see straight. thank goodness, michal was there to help with sahar. he's so much easier to care for now. he likes to play by himself with his toys. he keeps amused for a long time by sucking on his hand or thumb. he also likes to watch television and look at the computer. he's beginning to giggle. what a treat! when gal came home i decided to make donuts. i have these cute mini molds with a hole in the center, that makes bite sized donuts. i quickly mixed up a batter but i mistakenly threw in 2 tbs instead of 2 tsp of baking powder and they exploded all over the oven. i took out the frozen chanukah donuts from the other night and tried to "revive" them but no one wanted any. i made a small bowl of homemade applesauce for michal. i didn't have any latkes to serve with it so i reheated some of the falafel balls.

yesterday, i spent the entire afternoon doing the kids' laundry. it took hours to dry all of the training suits, towels and baby blankets. in the summer, things dry outside in ten minutes. i felt ambitious so i made another batch of donuts using rye flour. they came out perfectly this time. i also made up a batch of applesauce cupcakes and used up the remainder of the sour cream icing. i also made a dozen corn muffins and a batch of almond chocolate chip cookie balls. i am expecting my friends michal and mikimi for a shabbat sleep over. gal and zvi and sahar are going to 'the clan' for shabbat.

last night my niece called to ask if i had a cold air humidifier. menachem mendel had an inflamation of the vocal chords. he's teething like mad and has been sick for the past two weeks. luckily, i had bought one last year to keep mom's room moist. i jumped into a cab and decided to bring the humidifier in person and pop in for a moment to say hello. my sister was there and they both urged me to stay for a while. i had some cofee and a small piece of fish and distributed some of my baked goods and chocolates. i gave my niece some chanukah gelt and played with my grand nephew. i decided to walk home even though i had come with only a light cape. i drank a l'chaim (a shot of vodka) for the new month, and chanukah and literally ran home. it felt great to move. i got hit with a down pour on my way home but i didn't really care.

i was thinking about going to the store to buy whole wheat challah but i might just serve pitas and pull out some whole grain bread for the meal. today is the last night of chanukah. it is also the beginning of a new jewish month, as well as erev shabbat. next week is zvi's 23rd birthday. i ordered tickets for a concert of a popular jewish singer in the next town. it's been years since i went out and heard live music. i am pretty excited about it. i wish everyone a good shabbos, a happy chanukah and a good new month!