This is the first year that Lucas has been asking questions about different religions. Since Jason and I are both half-Jewish, we decided it was a fabulous time to pull out the menorah and start the celebrations of about 1/2 of our ancestors.
While Mama needs to brush up on her Hebrew, we had a wonderful night learning (and re-learning) about the meaning of the celebration of light.
Those of you that have been following me for awhile may know that we are lucky to live in a house that has been in Jason's family for about 50 years. A uber cool "atomic ranch" beach bungalow that hit an unfortunate time in the 70's for an upgrade and ended up with a little too much pink and carpeting... Living in a 50+ year old house has challenges, a major one being that wall and roof insulation apparently was not the norm for new construction in 1958 and we had been told the fireplace was not in working condition. While we are lucky enough to live in an environment where we don't need to worry about the physical elements, it DOES get chilly in the house. A few weeks ago we had an inspector come out and he delivered the wonderful news that our fireplace and chimney were fine working order and could be used.
The little fire transformed the living room. On a stormy wet night, the whole house was warm, cozy and glowing. We all put on our jammies and piled on the couch to watch a few Xmas shows and it really felt December around here.
*One more note...
Let me just say, after years of hating the fireplace and decorating it for various holidays and swearing at the hard stones, just putting up a new screen and grate made the whole area 10000X better. Really?! Why had NO ONE suggested that to me in the past 4 years?! $25 at Target updated my living room by 50 years. After smacking myself on the forehead, I begun to get excited for some more of the little things we are planning and looking forward to 2010 when we can get this house party started!