hundred dollar hanukkah: the gifts

As I said in the post that introduced my idea for a hundred dollar Hanukkah, this year we decided to set a budget of $100 and limit our gifting to one present for the whole family per night. When last I left you, I showed you how George and I made a little menorah which would be our family's first night gift. As promised, I'm back to share what's in store for the other nights (well... six of them, anyway). But not before you get in the mood with the Maccabeats. Take it away, boys!

My favorite Maccabeat is the one that looks like Neal Schweiber, how about you? Okay, now that you're in the mood:

First Night - DIY menorah. Candle cups (2 packs): $1.69 apiece; wood for base: $1.20 (1.99 with a 40% off coupon). Paint we had. All from Michael's. total: $4.58

Second Night - Movie and popcorn. Where The Wild Things Are (from the somewhat puzzling discount DVD bin at Michael's): $6.99; Popcorn: free (well, paid for at some point, but in the pantry). I'm cautiously optimistic about the movie choice, as George has a love/hate relationship with Maurice Sendak as should all children have with dead geniuses. total: $6.99

Third Night - Photobooth style family portrait. 8x24" canvas: $5 ($9.99 with a 50% off coupon from Joann); large photocopies of pictures of each member of the family: I'll be generous and say $2; Mod Podge we had. A more detailed post about this is eventually forthcoming, but it's an idea modified from this blog post found on Pinterest. total: $7 

Fourth Night - Homemade pajama pants for everyone. Our house is kinda chilly, and nothing says holidays like a family in matching flannel pants. I have a ridiculous stash of fabric, so these were free! total: NOTHING! 

Fifth Night - Gift certificate to Big Scoop Sundae Palace, our local goofy ice cream joint. I should've thrown in an extra dollar or two for the jukebox; oh well. total: $15

Sixth Night - Poppa's Pizza Pile-Up game from Value Village. Balancing is a particular interest of George's, as well as things coming suddenly crashing down, and our whole family has a soft spot (on me, it's the middle section) for pizza. A respectable collection of games is something I look forward to amassing, and this is the first we've bought specifically for play with the kids.  total: $1.99

Seventh Night - Tickets to the Seattle Aquarium. A splurge, but (I think) a smart one as outings like this go. Kids under 4 are free, and it'll be nicer to be inside the cozy aquarium than it would be trudging through the mud at the Woodland Park Zoo. George's birthday is also on the seventh night, and I wanted to make this gift something to look forward to, since he'll have plenty of new stuff to focus on. total: $40

Eighth Night - As the sun sets on the last night of Hanukkah, we'll be finishing up George's third birthday party. I have a special outing planned for that evening, and don't want to give too much away -- even Nathan doesn't know what we're doing! -- but wanted to close the holiday with something we could all make together, to use forever... or until someone breaks it. I'll take pictures. total: $20

GRAND TOTAL: $95.56

This was such a fun way to celebrate what is, in actuality, not a super big Jewish holiday, but one I get a little aggro about people forgetting in a peppermint and Burl Ives-induced fog. Still to come this month: a bowling afficionado turns three, a Solstice for which I have perhaps unwisely promised a certain youngster he may stay up "all day long and all day night," a smallish Christmas and a thirty-third birthday for the hardest working, baby-slinginest papa there ever was. Oof. Remind me to never have another winter baby. 

thankful

I'm thankful for a lot: two healthy children, a partner I saw fit to make them with, a warm home, delicious food, and enough to share. Moreover, I am grateful for the presence of mind to be thankful, for my ability -- however limited my reach often seems -- to instill gratitude in my kids, and for the fact that no Thanksgiving will pass without some discussion of the haves, the have-nots, and the used-to-haves-but-got-royally-screweds. Thanksgiving is a tricky day, with tragic and often misrepresented roots, but I wish us all a happy, delicious holiday with eyes wide open to those in need of justice. 

all I (n)ever wanted

Vacation. Some people go to Hawaii or Disneyland or Italy. We go to Oklahoma. We go to Oklahoma during the most diabolical heat wave and drought of all time, one that reduces local news anchors to talking only of the weather and attempting to cook things on sidewalks, on hoods of cars. George learned a few words while we were there, the most useful being "hot." Whenever we left Nathan's parents' house: "hot." When we got back into the sweltering car: "hot." Whenever a lukewarm morsel of food touched his lips: "hot." He even began demanding that the air conditioning vent be pointed directly at him. The kid is no idiot, but he is Northwestern through and through.

We took to the river, which, in the 105 degree summer, must've been about 80 degrees. 

George loved it, and pleadingly signed 'more bath' when it was time to get out and eat some watermelon and blackberries. 

This was among my best memories from the trip: buoyant in the water, escaping the oppressive heat and the forever-long car rides that come with living in the middle of nowhere. 

For a change, on this outing, everyone seemed to be having fun, which is sadly uncommon when hanging out with Nathan's family. His sister? Rules. His dad? A dad: can talk about the weather, pleasant enough and enjoys George's company. His mom? Well, let's just say this: When, during a family-style pizza lunch, we announced that we were expecting a baby, Nathan's mom replied, "Oh. (pause) Well, I don't care; have 25 kids. I want more grandchildren." And then went about the conversation she was previously having. About cows. Sigh.

Every time we visit, it's a struggle for me from start to finish. I have a hard time deciding to go in the first place; I'm a very fearful flyer, who (thanks to pregnancy, then breastfeeding, then pregnany AND breastfeeding) hasn't been sufficiently -- ahem -- medicated in nearly three years. Once we're there, regardless of the boundaries we've set in the past and ones we've laid out for the trip that we're on, there's opposition. There's sulking and fit-throwing and passive aggression, which are behaviors I barely and rarely tolerate in people I love and respect, say nothing of those who... you know, I don't. We don't even have the luxury of comfortably leaving George for a date night, because the threat that we'll come home to a drunk, unstable caregiver (or two) is, unfortunately, very real. Add the hours spent in the car, the lack of vegetarian food, the bucket-size sodas and WALMART, and vacation becomes an exercise in cherry-picking halfway decent memories.

Family is intrinsically important to Nathan, but not to me. For better or worse, I don't feel any allegiance to people simply because we share a bloodline, but I understand that most people do. For that reason, I try to keep my objections to a minimum when hanging out with Nathan's parents. I'd be lying, however, if I said this future-baby I'm making doesn't provide a little bit of relief: next summer, the in-laws can come to us. And, with any luck, they'll leave the triple-digit heat in Oklahoma. 

outsiders

Our back yard is a major work in progress. We don't own our house, but I've always been a fixer-upper of my living spaces, regardless of whether or not they are technically mine. What matters, as far as I'm concerned, is that we enjoy and really inhabit our home; the walls can return to white when we're ready to leave. 

This summer will be George's first as an appreciator of the outdoors. Last summer he was pretty little and we spent some time outside but the hats' chinstraps were annoying and he'd grown so adept at shoving things into his mouth in a single motion that, when surrounded by grass and pebbles and mulch, Mama and Papa didn't stand a chance in the battle against mouthfuls of nature. This time around, he's more trustworthy on his own and I'm looking forward to watching his sandy hair turn yellower in the sun while we play with the chickens and spray each other instead of watering the garden. I decided he needed some backyard activities, and the obvious choices were a given: sand box, water table. But somewhere I saw a photo of kids playing with an oversized chalkboard and it looked like just the creative outlet to complete our backyard kid oasis. 

It was simple and the materials cheaply bought: $8 for the paint and $6 for the board, plus a bucket and a package of sidewalk chalk from the dollar store, bringing the total to $16. We had the rope and screws, but I suppose if you didn't, it would be another dollar or so. I wanted it to be steady, as our yard isn't the most level surface, so we drilled it into the fence and nailed the rope into the fence behind the chalkboard. 

George is big into putting things away, so half the fun seems to be in choosing a chalk, then putting it back in the bucket and choosing another. He took to it with no direction, which is, to me, the hallmark of a good play space, one that will actually get use. 

Hanging out with the whole family outside this evening was so fun, and made the coming warm months even more exciting. I can't wait until our garden is in full effect, when we can pick dinner from the ground while the baby colors in chalk and the chickens cluck around our feet, pecking for bugs. 

Feel free to stop by; we'll just be chillaxin' out back.