Chanukah edition

The holiday season is soon upon us. This time of year is my favorite, as I love Christmas lights and decorations. Don’t worry, my Oreos know all about it. I just think they are beautiful (both my Oreos and the decorations) and if I didn’t think I would electrocute myself, I would hang up lights to decorate my home all year long, as to not have them appear to be Christmas lights.

Look at that, a nice Jewish girl having the word Christmas appear three times in one paragraph. So much for my 20 years of Jewish day school, high school, and college education.

Thirty years ago, Husband #1 proposed to me at the biggest Christmas decoration of all in New York City. I think you know the one that I am talking about. To commemorate it being three decades since he made the best decision of his life, we recreated the proposal. I still have the glove that he bought me and put the ring in and so I put the ring in the glove, 30 years later (since the gloves were always too small on me, but I didn’t have the heart to return them because Husband #1 had tried so hard) and attempted to put it on.

What a beautiful re-creation it was. And I still cannot believe it has been 30 years. Thank God.

Back to the holiday season. I have already finished gift shopping for Strudel and her sisters — well, just Sister #2, because Sister #3 is still too young for Chanukah presents and Danish and her sister live too far away for me to give them presents, so they have to wait until I see them, whenever that may be…Babka can only do so much.

This is the other dilemma. Strudel is having some sharing issues, so I am trying to come up with the best way to give each of them presents. Whatever I give Strudel, Strudel plays with, and whatever I give Sister #2, Strudel plays with. I am thinking of giving all the presents to Strudel and letting her decide what Sister #2 should get. Or let Strudel have the toys and give Sister #2 the wrapping paper and boxes. Or just buy two of everything and see what happens.

Again, you would think that I never had children of my own and didn’t know what to do when kids don’t share. But I had boys, and they were 15 months apart, and buying them the same thing was never really an issue. You can never have too many footballs or baseballs or soccer balls or tennis balls. There are bazillion different types of Legos. In any event, we will see what happens, and I am sure it will be fine. And, if it isn’t, as the grandparent, I get to go home, and their parents can deal with it. Ahh, good times.

The other day, I came across the perfect gift for my Oreos. It is on the website aishtamidhats.com. It is a travel bag that holds a black hat AND other stuff — books, tefillin, a bottle of wine. This genius product was invented by sons of a friend of mine, who just happen to be from Teaneck. (Of course the sons live in Israel now because, well, that is what some sons do, not that I am mentioning any names…)

If you have Oreos like I do, you definitely want to check this out. No, I am not being compensated for this shout-out, I just think it is an amazing invention, and truthfully, I am surprised that it hasn’t been invented earlier. I mean they even have these raincoats that are made for black hat wearers — they are hysterical and practical. They also have individual black hat covers to wear in the rain. Ahh, the possibility of products is endless.

But what do you get for the mother of the sons who wear black hats? Jewelry, always jewelry. And the wives of the husbands who wear black hats? Probably also jewelry, but that is for another column.

This is also the holiday season for donuts. Since I am currently shaped like a donut, I will try to refrain from them this year, but who am I kidding? That will probably never happen.

Wishing you all a healthy and happy and gift-filled holiday season!

Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck is not sure what to get Husband #1 this year. She thinks that living with him might just be gift enough.