First night 2005

Samantha loves the candle lighting ceremony. She sings along with us during the blessing, although she is still uncertain about the words. For the first time, she is holding the shamash for the smaller menorah and lighting her own candles. She is very proud.

We went to NH over the weekend to see my family for a bit. Seems like the time is always mostly taken up with driving, even when we are there, just traveling from one family home to the next. I didn’t get to see Alan’s home for very long, but he has clearly worked hard to make some big improvements. Pat and Cliff had stained their siding, and added new siding to most of the house. I had liked the color in the photos, but seeing the house in reality was amazing. The antique bronze color works really well with the green hills surrounding it.

Sam got to open some presents during the day at Grammy and Grandpa’s house. She ate the menorah cookie from Zayde right away. Everyone oohed at the pretty frosting on the top. The mittens Grammy knitted for Sam fit very well, and perfectly match the pair Grammy also knitted for me. We opened some presents from Pat at her house, which were two books: “Encyclopedia of Nature” and “Encyclopedia of Animals.” They have great photos and pictures of Winnie the Pooh asking questions about nature. Patty also gave her a placemat with a menorah that Sam can draw on over and over again. Sam colored everything in immediately and made sure that each candle’s flame was colored yellow.

We woke up Sam and lit our menorah when we got home from the long drive. It was so nice to be home out of the rain. She opened a few more presents. Our friend, Becky, had dropped off a beautiful box filled with yummy foods, bread and some lindt chocolates. Yum! We’ve been using the blueberry spread on the bread and it is very tasty. She gave Sam a huge box of stamps and another present of lipsticks and a momento box. Sam is fascinated with the stamps and hasn’t figured out the lipgloss yet. We gave her some stickers, a glue stick, a Pooh and Eeyore puzzle and a dreidel.