There is no place like home for the holidays
Hanukkah starts this Friday night and ends next Friday. I can’t have my usual Hanukkah party so I am taking all my menorahs to Swirl and lighting them there – but that means no latkes and applesauce and beef tenderloin which have become my traditional fare. You serve latkes or fried food because it represents the oil that miraculously burned for 8 days when it was only enough for one day. One year, I decided to just fry tater tots and they were delicious! As we know so well down here in New Orleans, fry most anything, even pickles, and they are so good. But I can’t transport fried food to Swirl, so instead I’ll bring other traditional foods that are portable.
Then Saturday is the Ponce de Leon merchants street festival and there will be snow – since I witnessed it in the making. Santa is supposed to show up as well. And later at around 6 there will be caroling at the church.
Christmas eve is hot on the heels of the last day of Hanukkah and I hope to go see the bonfires this year since I’ve missed them for many years now having not been here on Christmas Eve.
Then Christmas day, I’ll do volunteer work – which right now is undefined, waiting on my assignment to come via email.
My mom turns 71 on the 28th too and so there is yet another event to celebrate. Juanita is coming in so L and I will take our mothers to dinner, which we’ve done for the past two years.
New Year’s eve G wants to go out to dinner – I told her I’ve never had a good dinner out in a restaurant on New Year’s – Steve and I got married on New Year’s Eve and for years we had a big blow out party in North Beach in our apartment and up on the roof. Then I got tired of washing dishes at 4AM every year on my anniversary so we started trying to go to fancy restaurants but I felt as if we were eating food that had been doled out on a conveyor belt, so we gave that up after a few years. And then every year became a “what to do?” conundrum until the millenium when we joined two other couples to go see Super Diamond – a cover band that played Neil Diamond songs. It was fun but Steve didn’t dance so in the end it was kind of stand around and move and watch the other couples dance.
So maybe we’ll do dinner. I called August but they are booked – and I am jonesing to go to August since I haven’t been in a long time now. Whatever we do, there will be champagne, and there will be fun – I wish the LaLa was ready, we’d have a party there. If only the LaLa knew how many parties await it!
My brothers and nieces and families are all coming in for my oldest brother’s 60th birthday as well – good lord – can’t believe Bob is turning 60 on January 8. But we all decided to celebrate his birthday on New Year’s weekend because it just works with everyone’s schedule.
Then you kind of wake up and it is 2007 – what are you doing for the rest of your life?