December 25th -- a wild day for Me

[Guest guest]

n here. Well, we spent the 6th day of Hanukkah and Christmas Day rather wildly with family, friends and friends of friends at my cousin house.I brought home-made pasta with cheese sauce, and everyonebrought something. Cousin made the classic Latkes (potatopancakes), and we ate, cheered, chanted, sang and just generallyhad a terrific time. I spent nearly two hours with one of my (biasedly) very mostfavorite granddaughters while I proof-read her essay for applica-tion to a university which she is just itching to get into, and sheexplained what her goals for herself as she started college are.Amazing young lady!Every guest was absolutely fascinating: adults, seniors, children,teen-agers, university students,

all. I tried, at one point, to counthow many we all were, but gave up after 53!Cousin also served heated apple cider (non-alcoholic) with lemonslices in it (mulled) in mugs, and the best coffee and tea were available, too--and a gingerbread house made by a group of thekids, and no end of good things to eat.(So, now that I have been home for 22 hours, I have been veryvirtuous--do not want to be wearing what I ate!)One cousin-in-law played the accordian, another the violin, andwe all sang all kinds of songs--some in Hebrew, some in Yiddish,and even some in Ladino (old 16th Century Spanish), and manyin English. Three of the young women sang descant (a harmonicvery high part) as a sort of echo in between verses. I sing aboutone fifth to one octave below the higher voices (ahhh, age!).I was assigned a task: to work on a song, "The Eight Days ofHanukkah," which

will be the Jewish equivalent of The TwelveDays of Christmas. I think I can get that done by next year, eventhough next year, Hanukkah comes in early December!I hope that each of you had a good day, some getting togetherwith relatives and/or friends, or just had a chance to relax.Love to you all,n