Family | Peaches Prattlings

{December 18, 2014} Happy 10th Anniversary

Ten years! My sister has been married ten years!

Ten years ago my sister said “I do” to her bashert and it has been a long, winding, beautiful road. Bashert is a Yiddish term with several meanings, but traditionally used to mean soul mate. The wasband used to say basherbert, always made me laugh!

They met at a ski house they both had time in, one thing led to another and just about a year later, the question was popped on the top of a mountain and about a year later, ten years ago today to be exact, Mr & Mrs. The day before manis and pedis with mom, earlier in the day hair and makeup and then off to Manhattan for the big event.

Lots of friends and family were there for the wonderful occasion. As matron of honor, I gave a speech, there was laughter, there were tears, this was my baby sister getting married! I closed by telling ACS to stay out of my chair! [inside joke]. My dad, the father of the bride, gave a great speech and as agreed… if the Red Sox lost the World Series, he would give his speech wearing a Sox cap and he did. That was big!

Growing up in NYC we are Yankees fans, I am not a baseball fan, but I like my teams. And as I just mentioned not being much of a baseball fan, I didn’t know about the rivalry between the Sox and the Yankees until they started dating, and the teasing has continued to this day.

Their life was good, but not quite complete and then three years later…EJS was born and three years later MGS and now… complete and perfect.

Here we are ten years later and their bond is stronger than ever, the family is wonderful and I am so thrilled I could be there for the wedding and here tonight on their tenth wedding anniversary.

I wish you all the best for ten, twenty, thirty, fourth, fifty more years! I love you both!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shidduch#Bashert

{December 16, 2014} Happy Chanukah

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah, Happy Chanukah.

I know we have talked about this before, but here we are, it is the first night of Chanukah and I want to share some things.

As you know, or may not know… Chanukah or as some spell it Hanukkah, really a personal preference, is referred to as The Festival of Lights. The abridged version is that when the temple was destroyed and the Jews went in to rebuild it, they found enough oil to light the lamps for one night and lo and behold, a miracle, the oil lasted for eight nights!

That is the reason we celebrate for eight nights and certain foods we fry in oil, like potatoes which give us yummy potato latkes or pancakes and donuts, filled with jam, for a sweet year. I don’t know if you remember last year, the first night of Chanukah was also Thanksgiving, so we themed a lot of the foods around both holidays, so much fun to share the experience with friends and family.

We play games, like deridel, a spinning top with a Hebrew letter on each side telling you if you get half, have to give some, get nothing or get the entire pot! You could play with peanuts, pretzels, real coins or the traditional Chanukah gelt, chocolate coins. There is a great song to go along with the game, you may have heard it, ‘Deridel, Deridel, Dreidel’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKreDYVWark. Be warned, the game can get heated!

There are some great songs associated with Chanukah, such as ‘Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah”, this one performed by Bare Naked Ladies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLqG3BqMC8E

And I am sure you remember Adam Sandler’s “The Chanukah Song” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX5Z-HpHH9g, this is a great song that makes me laugh when I hear it!

Traditionally, we give gifts to friends and family and it is one gift per night. I always found it funny that there were kids when I was younger who celebrated Christmas thought I had it better because I had eight nights of gifts, I would tell them we probably get the same number of gifts, its just that we open one per night. In my family growing up, we would have one big family gift, like tickets to the Nutcracker at Rockefeller Center or one year, a Commodore 64! We were styling! And then little gifts for the other nights.

The games, gifts, food are all good, but it is the meaning of the holiday and how we celebrate and hold it near to our hearts. We gather together over a menorah, maybe some of us have more than one…I have quite the collection that my family has given me over the years [and I wish I could find the pictures right now!] and I treasure each one, and each night, we light the shamans, that is the candle that is set apart, maybe above, to the side, but it is the candle we light, say the blessing and then use to light the other candles.

I love when I have friends with me to share the experience, I say the prayer and some choose to do it with me. When my kids were younger, they loved helping to light the menorah and say the blessing. And…I have so many menorah that sometimes, people get their own!

One of my favorite memories from childhood, aside from lighting the menorah, playing deridel and my mother’s amazing potato latkes, which were fun to introduce to new people celebrating with us, was the stories that she would read every night. I wish I could remember the name of the book, but every night, she would pick one of the eight stories and read to us, it didn’t matter how old we got, she would still read a story to us every night of Chanukah, I think there was even a year that she read them over the phone, I miss that.

Tonight, I got a call at dinner from my sister, and when I said hello, EJS said Hi! Well, hello there, how are you? Happy Chanukah! Thank you for my science experiment, I cant wait to do it with you this weekend! Wait until she gets the rest of what I got her!

The Festival of Lights truly is a miracle , in so many ways. What it says to and about us as a people and what ir represents and how we are keeping those traditions alive!

Some people don’t know anyone who is Jewish or maybe you were the first they met, which is the case for me often. Someone, a dear friend, from collage posted this on my wall tonight:

Very happy Hanukkah to all my Hebrews and Shebrews! I have some amazing Jewish folks in my life but, let’s face it, you never forget your first. Sending love from long ago!

Happy Chanukah or Hanukkah to one and all! May it be sweet and bright!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

{December 14, 2014} Holiday Movies

How much do you love holiday movies?

Do you start watching them around Thanksgiving? Sooner? All year long?

There is the Hallmark Channel, famous for their holiday movies, even Lifetime Movie Network, Netflix has them all year long and there are times, admittedly, even in the summer, I am feeling the need for some holiday cheer and will put on a holiday movie and feel a chill in the air and the proverbial holiday spirit, lifts my spirits right up!

Unfortunately, most of these movies are horrible and have a very similar theme…broken hearts, boy meeting girl, girl or boy already involved with someone but there is always someone better…someone gets hit on the head and ends up in an alternate universe and when they come back to their original self realizing what they really want and end up where they were supposed to be. Maybe it’s a Groundhog Day type of movie, repeating the same day over and over until they get it right.

My sister and I are addicted to these things, no matter how bad they are, written, acted or whatever the case may be, we still love them, she DVRs them and sometimes, watch them over and over and sometimes…once is enough and delete. We like to sneak in a holiday movie in here and there, EJS and GES will watch with us sometimes, but most of the time, GES and I sneak in some time and even stay up late watching them.

I’d write you a list, but I don’t think I have enough time or space!

Guess what we’re doing right now as I write to you?

{December 12, 2014} Girls night

Had a great time at girls night tonight!

I got to Boston last night, kissed the girls, so cute when they’re sleeping! spent some time with GES, got some sleep, was confused for a moment where I was at 6:27 this morning, MGS came in and said hello, then a little while later EJS came to say hello.

Then it was showers and lunches and school. Got some work done, ran some errands, got on some calls, then it was time for girls night!

RG picked us up and off to girls night at BR’s house. There was RG, TS, BR, DB, LR, RG, GES and me and a spread of sushi, Chinese and challah. After hellos, we sat around the table, lit the lights for Shabbos, said the prayer over the wine, the blessing for the challah, then it was time to eat.

We ate, chatted, laughed and had an all around good time! They like to do their “Wow” of the week, and when it was my turn, my wow was “Molly came into my room this morning, said hello and as she crawled into bed, she said “I missed you” and that was amazing, so I had something to talk about at girls night.

The evening was a smash success and everyone had a good time! Thank you for including me!

I hope you had as good a time tonight I as I did!!!

{December 11, 2014} Holiday cards

They are starting to come in and I love it!

I love getting the photo cards people love sending, I get to see how the kids have grown, it’s awesome! I’ve thought about sending photo cards before, but what would I send? Me and my two cats? Just me? Boring! Just the cats, that would be cute.

One of the things I love doing is making my own cards and sending them out and that is what I will be doing this weekend, finishing the cards and putting them in the mail, I know I’m a little late, but as long as they get there before the holidays, that’s what counts, right?

Want to trade cards? I would love it! Let me know and we’ll do it!
Happy Holiday Carding!

{December 5, 2014} LaLa has a new love!

I wanted to wait a day or two before I shared the news.

LaLa or LD, has a new grandson to love on. I had wanted to wait to give them time to let people know, I probably could have told you seconds after the happy event, they may have been posting right before, during and after! No, I’m kidding.

LaLa has two sons, G and his wife Wendy have two girls, B&A, thirteen and nine (I hope I got that right) and three years ago, her other son, M, and his girlfriend, T, had her first grandson, B. A year later, I was at their wedding and their son was running around having a great time and charming everyone.

Wednesday, her daughter-in-law went in for her scheduled c-section and little man B became a big brother to a beautiful baby brother.

Much Mazel to the entire family and LaLa for a new baby to love on!

{November 30, 2014} A family tradition continues…The Nutcracker

Today, the family continued a fine tradition started when my sister and I were kids, we went to see The Nutcracker Ballet.

When we were kids, we got one big family gift for Chanukah and went to see The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve, performed by the New York City Ballet Company at Rockafeller Center. We did this for years and years and years, we would get dressed up and go to a matinee at the City Company and then go out to dinner, it was usually my parents, sister and grandmother [mom’s mom, who lived in NYC].

It has been along time since I have been to a production of The Nutcracker and it brought back so many memories. Now, you know how when you do something over and over and it becomes a tradition and the way you saw it first is how you always remember it and it is a good and happy memory and when you see it again and it’s different, you’re like…huh…

Let me preface by saying, this was a wonderful performance! The dancers were fantastic, the choreography was beautiful, the sets, the orchestra, everything, it could not have been better and to see the enraptured look on both EJS and MGS during the performance and MGS twirling her little heart out after the curtain closed, almost to the car, made it all worth it and I could not imagine a better picture, being there with not only my nieces and brother-in-law, but with my dad and sister, just like when we were kids, I was transported back in time all at once as if in a dream.

I have been to see The Nutcracker once on stage in Atlanta, I took my grandmother when she was visiting and once at an IMAX 3D. Both were different and I was not crazy about them, despite being a wonderful performance, but good memories because of the company and story. Something important to point out, the version that we grew up with was the George Balanchine version, each Ballet Company chooses to do their own choreograpy, what we love…Balanchine.

For those of you “not in the know’, here is a link to the entire production by The New York City Ballet Company filmed in 1993, and in the role of the Nutcracker Prince was Macaulay Culkin, who was 13 at the time, and of course we were in attendance that year, he was quite good in the role. Now, just so you are aware, there happens to be some narration during the performance in the video [I found it odd when I first heard it]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ5Se2ErinU

Act I takes place at a party and Act II takes place in The Land of Sweets. We love the entire ballet, but everyone has their favorite parts and I am going to tell you about ours and I will tell you where they are in the video link. In Act I, I love the when Clara and Herr Drosselmeier’s nephew part company at the part [23:05], when The Nutcracker becomes a boy [46:00].

There are so many to love and dad, GES and I love the entire production, but here you go. We all LOVE when the tree grows [32:52] in Act I, then in the Land of Sweets, my mom adored Coffee, from Arabia, her ultimate favorite part was at the very end, what she does with her feet, amazing! Mine is Tea [52:18], so funny and charming always makes me laugh and GES is Candy Canes [53:24] when he hula hoop skipping, you’ll know when you see it, I must admit, I love that too! We love Mother Ginger, always played by a man dressed as a woman, and her polchinelles [57:00] with her tamborine and hand mirror. My dad’s favorite is The Pas de Deux, with the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier, but the bestest part of it is towards the end, when he pulls her, on point, on a block across the stage [1:09]

I hope some day you get to experience this in person, but if you don’t, please enjoy the link, I know I am in heaven sitting here listening to the music while I talk to you! Happy of happies!

http://www.nycballet.com/Season-Tickets/Nutcracker-Additional/Synopsis.aspx

{November 29, 2014} Family Photos

Today, we took family photos, in the snow.

It was a lot of fun. We had breakfast food: bagels, lox, cream cheese, whitefish, tomatoes, cucumbers and lunch food: deli, cheeses, pickles and then there were desserts: cakes and pies, some new and some leftover from Thanksgiving.

ACS’ brother and his wife, JS and AS, then B&A, who are like grandparents to MGS abs EJS were here too. We had lunch, caught up, figured out what to wear and LS showed up to take pictures.

We took turns heading outside, it was a bit cold out, still a lot of snow on the ground. The girls went first, MGS in her Elsa Halloween costume and EJS in her karate uniform. Then they changed into ‘everyday’ clothes.

There were pictures with just the adults, then the adults with the kids, all sorts of combinations, one big one with the entire group, at one point EJS took one of the cameras and took lots of pictures of whoever was there at the moment.

There were a lot of laughs, especially with the kids, EJS kept tickling our legs.

After, everyone else left and GES, ACS, EJS and MGS took some photos on the couch like they have done in the past. Then, ACS and dad took off and there were play dates and the day went on as normal, as normal as crazy is around here, perfect.

I can’t wait to see the pictures!

{November 28, 2014} Bittersweet

This year, celebrating Thanksgiving in Boston was bittersweet.

The reason I say that is that this was the first time in six years that I celebrated Thanksgiving in Boston and not Atlanta. When I was married, we celebrated the holiday in New York City, Boston or Atlanta and the year we got divorced, I came to Boston with TS to celebrate.

Since then, I have hosted Thanksgiving for all my “orphan” friends, people like me, who didn’t have any extended family in Atlanta, who were not going home to be with families. Sometimes, people don’t have the opportunity to go home for the holidays, sometimes they have to work the next day, so I stated hosting and I have loved each year!

It was as pot luck, with me making the turkey, yes, the vegan makes the turkey! One year, I remember flying in from Nevada the day before thanksgiving, getting there either late the night before or early thanksgiving morning and going right to work. Last year it was even Thanksgivingka, the first night of Chanukah was thanksgiving, what a great meal that was!

Different people have joined different years and some people were each year, CKM, SDL, DJL, Miss A, CC and JC and their baby M, JCT and her family, DCM, AB, JB and A and their son, E, just to name a few.

Last year, I don’t know if you remember me telling you about the dollar store thanksgiving! I had already moved to Colorado, but when we came back to Atlanta for thanksgiving, stayed in my house and hosted using things I bought at the dollar store!

There were so many great memories built over the years and I would not trade them for anything. This year, being with my family in Boston was so very important and while I would not have missed the opportunity, I was missing my family in Atlanta and not hosting, very much. Hence, bittersweet.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and celebrated with those they love and care about! I know I did!

{November 28, 2014} Today, I am thankful for…

So very many things!

Today is the American celebrated holiday of Thanksgiving. It is the day we give thanks, it doesn’t matter to anyone else what you are thankful for, they are your thoughts and if you want to share them, go for it, if you want to keep them to yourself, go for it!

Today was a simple day, got up way too early, par for the course, but had a good time playing with the girls, making egg sandwiches, hanging with my brother-in-law, dad and my sister, nice and easy. At some point ACS and dad took the girls to the local high school football game, for the longest running rivalry football game, between Needham and Wellsley High School, the Thanksgiving game has been played on Thanksgiving day since 1882! How’s that for tradition! http://needhamhistory.org/features/articles/needham-wellesley/

While they were gone, GES and I tried to watch a terribel movie, Adult Store and when that didn’t work, we put in “And So it Goes” but didn’t get far because everyone came home and it was more time in front of the fire, holiday movies on The Hallmark Channel, doesn’t this all sound so idyllic?

Then it was time for me to make my corn souffle while everyone took showers to get ready to go to T&S S’ house, we piled in two cars and off we went. We got there, headed in and joined the commotion! There were 4 families there, each with two kids, then three granddads, two grandmas and one extra auntie, me! When I got there, I found out that Little E went home last weekend and told his mommy that he wanted Auntie J to come and babysit! I am SO ready for that! I am spoiled!

We all worked together to get the finishing touches done on the food, heating up things, setting things on the table and then it was time to sit down to eat. Now, as most families do, you go around the table to talk about what you are thankful for and our fabulous hostess started. There are a lot of things that this group is especially thankful for and it was a very touching and tearful time, it has been a tough year and we are so thankful to have made it through and come out of it and we can see 2015 will be here soon and it will be the start of a wonderful new year.

After TS, then it was my turn, then my dad’s and so on down the line. There were some funny things said, some insightful, poignant, tearful and of course, whenever the kids have a turn, it’s always adorable. Some kids are thankful for their friends, their family, their grandparents, their food and we all laugh and smile when they say it, they are being honest. Last, but not least was our very own MGS and she became a bit shy, so together we said for her…”Let’s eat!”

Hours to prep and cook, minutes to devour! The funny thing is the one question I am asked the most at this time of year “But Auntie J, what are you going to eat? Well, if you think about it, usually, all but the turkey and stuffing are vegetarian! We had greenbean cassarole [made with cream of mushroom soup], brussel sprouts with carrots, green beans, there was vegetarian stuffing, carrot souffle, mashed potatoes, home made applesauce, rolls and cranberries, now you tell me…out of all that, what couldn’t I eat?

After dinner, we all helped to clean up, then started to prep the desserts. We had apple crumble, pumpkin pie, fresh fruit, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate and heathbar cookies, coffee cake, peacan pie and ice cream. I think we were set!

After cleaning up we were treated to a show by all the kids, SO cute and then it was time to go, the kids were getting tired and wound up and the grownups were in food coma mode! Time to pack up, suit up and head home. We got outside and it was flurrying, so pretty and I loved watching MGS trying to catch snow flakes on her tongue!

Home for pjs, relaxing and talking to you!

I know I have said this before, but I am thankful to you, my friends, family and follwers for taking the time to read my posts, comment, like and enjoy my posts. I am thankful to have an audience who likes what I have to say and I will forever be greatful! I hope you all had a fabulous thanksgiving and got to spend the day with friends and family.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

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