the first December celebration
We celebrated the first night of Hanukah this evening, and it was as delightful as it could be under the circumstances! Leah's parents are determined to make the holiday just as thrilling as it would be if we were observing it with them at their house, so they packaged up bags of presents to cover all eight nights. Leah drove over their to drop off the gifts for them and pick all that up, and Harvey and Zion came along so they could take a walk with Grandma and Grandpa. Then when they got home we did the candle-lighting and present-opening over Zoom. It was great, except for our singing of the blessing... it's always a little shaky as everyone waits for everyone else, and you can imagine how much worse that was with the Zoom delay. But we got through it! And all three boys were delighted with their presents—talking hamster doll, ball maze, and metal detector respectively (it seems like there should be some way to combine those three and try to take over the world...).
Leah did most of the prep on our family's end—for the rest of us December 10th was a little early in the month to be ready for anything! But she was on top of it. Zion did have time to make a beautiful card, and Harvey outdid himself with the creation of a beautiful little model guitar for Grandpa. I helped him some, but the idea and the drive to make it happen was all his. It came out great; I hope it inspires him to try some more miniature woodworking!
There's lots more Hanukah to come—we've got the link for seven more evenings of Zoom meetings. And then when it's done there's only a week until Christmas. Yikes! All the celebrating sure is stressful!