Festival of Lights

 Here is my grandson Quincy last night lighting the last candle for Hannukah. There is my brother-in-law supervising.

I love this part of our family tradition when we all sit down to the usual knishes and latkes and everything else and we exchange all those wonderful and wacky gifts. My sister Maria listened when many months ago I said I really wanted a statue of St. Francis for my garden. So there it was- tasteful and the perfect size to guard my water garden.

We are certainly diverse; our family includes all colors, ethnicities and religions. And we celebrate like mad! This night we were especially tender as we thought about the tragedy in Connecticut but never spoke about it in front of Quincy. None of us could bear what those parents who lost their children have to do. So we hold him tighter and laugh as he releases the big slinky down the back stairs and we hear the clanks going down. We laugh as he manoeuvers his new robotic spider under the table and over our feet, and we scream.

Next week we'll be going to visit five of our other grandchildren in Connecticut. We'll celebrate Christmas with all the decorations and twin babies crawling around eating the wrapping paper and bigger ones eager to tell us what they have been doing since we last saw them. We won't be eating latkes. We'll be feasting on traditional Puertorican food, and probably a dab of some traditional English fare.

We'll rush in on Christmas Eve morning on a blast of cold air, so eager to see everyone and hugs and kisses and how you've grown and is there any time left to run out to the CVS for more stocking stuffers.

I do love the holidays! I am glad we do not have to have our own Christmas tree here, but I am looking forward to the one I'll see soon. (And I am looking forward to chocolates!)

Happy Holidays, friends. Hold tight to your family, hug your kids. Pray for peace and love.