Hanukkah 2017

On the first night of Hanukkah, my true love gave to me…2 gifts.

One was big, and one small, both of which David said would fit the “silly and fun” theme he was going for this year. 

He first handed me a Styrofoam box closed tightly with heavy-duty packing tape. 

      

I detached the top half after prying it open with scissors and without my glasses I squinted to read “Whole Lotte Love.” 

“Awwwww, how sweet,” I said to my romantic husband.  It reminded me of the “My Guy” mug I bought him one Valentine’s Day, with print reminiscent of “The Dating Game” show I was obsessed with for much of my teenage years.   

I appreciated David’s sentimentality, wanting me to have a mug that declared his love for me, like he had from me.

“Take it out,” he said, and I was entertained to see how pleased with himself he was with this gift. I guess I wasn’t moving quickly enough because he wiggled it out on his own, eager to show me the full design.

And there it was…that face.

Let me start by saying this is no ordinary face.  Those yummy cheeks, those eyes (when they are open – or even when closed) that delicious punim (Yiddish for face) belongs to our very first grandchild, Eliana. 

It’s true…I’m smitten.  We all are.    

In this picture, her eyes are closed and she’s sucking her thumb.

When I lift the mug to sip my hot tea, I will be close enough to kiss her. 

There’s no better picture than this, other than say…another one of Eliana. 

As for David’s second gift to me: the big box.  

   

It was a game of Tip It, one of my favorites from way back.

So thoughtful of him to want me to have it; we had just laughed about the little man who balances his body using his nose on a long pole, surrounded by discs that have to be removed without his falling off.  

It was a very thoughtful gift, except for one thing:  I brought my childhood game to our house when we married, almost 14 years ago.

“Did you just wrap it?” I asked quite confused, wondering if he took it out of our closet.

I don’t know why he’d do that; he’d never done that before and let’s face it: that would be a weird thing to do. But, we’re getting older, and anything’s possible. 

Then I realized that he bought a “new” one, apparently not knowing that we already had one.  

So, we got another great laugh out of the game, again.

Then he wanted to play right away, so we did right next to the Hanukkah candles.

And I won – not that I’m keeping track, of course.

It was indeed a silly and fun first night, topped off with some Eliana sweetness.