Happy Hanukkah

We invited two families over to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. Two American families. We have yet to make any Italian Jewish friends. Each family has two children, so we had seven kids over altogether including our own.

In the morning, I picked up a few additional things we needed: napkins, cooking oil, etc. Then I met a friend for lunch. She is the mother of one of Avery's classmates. While she is Italian, she had been living in London since University and moved back to Rome just two years ago with her American husband and two children. It was nice to get her perspective on RIS.

Afterwards, I picked up some flowers -- they do such a nice job here with flowers -- which always makes me smile. Josh had picked Charlotte up from school early today so she could attend the 2:30pm swim practice. That way she could be at the party tonight. Then Josh returned to RIS to pick up Olivia and Avery. He had been charged with the very important task of taking a photo of Olivia and her two American classmates. We are planning to give the photo in a nice frame to Miss Ivana, their Italian teacher, for the holidays.

Morris started frying up potato pancakes at 5 o'clock. He was making latkes for 2 hours! He must have fried up at least five dozen pancakes. I thought we'd made so many that we'd certainly have leftovers. Nope. They all disappeared. The latkes were a huge hit -- especially with the home-made applesauce! We served the latkes three ways: with applesauce, with plain yogurt (a sour cream substitute), and with ricotta cheese - a nod to Italy. I put the latkes out on the table, buffet style, as an appetizer and served them with Spritz cocktails. The Spritz, as I make it, is three parts Prosecco to one part Aperol and one part soda. Delicious. I skipped the orange slice and olive as a garnish -- maybe next time.

The kids played with dreidls and gelt (brought by one of our guests) for about 15 minutes and then it was complete mayhem. I have no idea what was going on, but there was a lot of noise and running around.

We settled the kids around the kitchen table for dinner before the adults and Charlotte were seated in the dining room. It was really nice to have Charlotte at our table and she interacted with the adults very naturally. We had brisket, mixed vegetables, garlic bread and salad. Kiki brought cookies for dessert as well as a torte. The kids, who finished their dinner in 10 minutes, were at it once again with the noise and the running around. Could it be a function of the boys outnumbering the girls for a change?: 4 to 2 (excluding Charlotte). In any case, it was a very nice evening with the exception of the noise level.

After our guests left, we opened our first Hanukkah gifts -- these from Grandma Dale and Papa Don. Everyone got their very own pair of slippers. As anyone who has visited us knows, the tile floors in our villa get pretty icy in the wintertime, so warm, cushy slippers are just the thing. Olivia liked hers so much (hers are like special socks) she went to sleep with them on.