Happy Haunukka and Solstice!

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Well, today is the shortest day of the year, with over 15 hours of darkness.

Our holiday festivities began in earnest today. We actually tried to begin yesterday (Ha!NookKha began at sunset last night), but we didn’t have any chocolate gelt to use for our dreydel game, and Owen went to bed early with a headache.

No problem, though. I scored some chocolate coins at Cub Foods today and, since Hannukkah lasts eight days (one day for each spelling variant), we were able to spin the dreidel this evening.

We have a wooden dreidel Jennifer bought a couple of year’s ago, and Owen was given a dreidel yesterday while on a field trip to attend a production of The Magic Dreidel at the Minnesota Jewish Theatre. Though we lack a spinagogue…

Above: A Spinogogue

…we still managed to play a bad-ass game of dreidel. The competition was a tad intense, though Owen periodically diffused it by making food and money appear as the dreidel spun (his version of recreating the Chanuka miracles he saw in yesterday’s theatrical production). I won, which my wife says is typical.

Also today, Jennifer prepared a traditional solstice dinner, complete with everything except the boar’s head. She worked very hard to prepare the delicious pot pie of potatoes and veggies, and, in the process, discovered that our smoke alarms are working fine. Very tasty! We ate while listening to the strains of Free to Be You and Me, Louis Armstrong and, of course, Fiddler on the Roof.

During dinner, and for the remainder of the evening, we kept the lights dimmed and the candles lit. The holiday lights shown in through our Boba Flakes.

Above: two of our six Boba Flakes help us observe Life Day.

Later, the kids opened their Solstice gifts. Owen received two books and a puzzle. Isla received three small baby dolls and one book about kittens.

Then Owen and I watched a video about the Earth’s tilt and how the seasons are resultant from the planet’s axis.

Finally, Owen was allowed to stay up as long as he wanted on this longest night of the year. This backfired somewhat when I realized it also meant that I would have to stay up late, too, but my wife pointed out that we could go to bed at any time, and just give Owen instructions to be quiet. At about 10:45, we went to bed. Owen laid down in his bed and reminded me that he wanted to stay up until 1:00 AM. I told him he was welcome to stay up as long as he so desired, as long as he stayed quiet. I went to bed and fell asleep. I don’t know when he finally drifted off.

In other news: INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT SHUNNING.

In still other news: INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT QUESTING FOR TRUTH.

…As always, the comments sections are more interesting than the articles themselves.

Thursday, 22 December 2011

The festivities continued today.

My department at work had a holiday celebration. We engaged in a gift exchange. Here’s what I brought:

If it looks really well wrapped, what with a bow and everything, it’s because there was free gift wrapping at Barnes and Noble.

I had this 40% off coupon for B & N, so I figured I’d go there to buy the gift. We were told to spend about $15, and I figured that with my sweet coupon, I could get something with a $20 value (or so) and still end up spending only $15.

I ended up buying Casino in a Box, which had chips, cards, a dice table, and a little roulette wheel. It retailed for $19.95, but of course I got 20% off. I then went over to the free gift wrapping table where some girl was in a ‘girls’ adventure club’ or something like that, and she was trying to get enough money for the club’s trip to Peru. So while she wrapped my gift, I tossed some money into her jar and made a witty comment about the Equator, which was my way of letting her know that even though I’m an American, I’m not a stupid idiot who doesn’t know where Peru is located.

Anyhow, today we feasted at a nearby restaurant. The boss paid the bill, and in the gift exchange I netted a set of shot glasses. Not just any shot glasses, though, I got a set where one is a boot, one’s a martini glass, one is a teeny-weenie wine glass, and one is a traditional tumbler. Pretty sweet for an amateur drunk like me, really. On the wrapping paper, a sticker read “TO: An excellent, dedicated BSC worker” and “FROM: Your equal,” which I thought was pretty funny and it made me wish I had had the thoughtfulness to include a snarky label on my gift. The boss also brought gifts for everyone, though I haven’t peaked in the bag yet so I can’t really divulge the contents to you, loyal reader, just yet.

Tomorrow’s my final day at work this calendar year. What that means is either I’ll be real conscientious about maintaining this blog for the next ten days or so, or I’m gonna totally nix it in favor or sleeping, drinking, and answering about a millinillion math questions from my son.