What do good Jews do in Southern California on Dec 25th?

Go to a Movie and have Chinese Food o.k. they can do that anywhere ... how about in SoCal?

Why they take their dog for a walk in their shorts...

Celia this part is for you... it was a beautiful warm sunny day in the high 70's.

Barry and I found a new place to take Shomer... in front of the synagogue where he can run free and not get into to much trouble.

After a good long run he was very tired and very happy just spend time on the sofa with Ashleigh

o.k. so we may never have gotten to the movie but we did get to Chinese food when Bubbles and Allan finally came into town from Las Vegas.

Packages from Israel

Imagine the excitement of getting this package.... it was for Ashleigh and Barry and it had come all the way from Israel..... but what was in it?

Ashleigh really loved her Hebrew University T-shirt and her GREEN bag.

And Barry loved being a Kelev Gadol

Thanks Sam for a great 5th night of hanukkah.

It's Slurpeee Time

isn't it fun when great minds think alike.

a few weeks ago in the Target ad I saw it the perfect gift for Sherri (the person responsible for this family's addiction to Slurpees)

A Slurpee Machine! This was actually a toy but it was a Slurpee Machine with the official 7-11 name. I had to get it for her, and I did. It was actually the first hanukkah present that I bought for anyone.

Imagine my surprise as the Lorch family arrived at the party with a box wrapped in almost the same paper as my gift for Sherri. Now I must tell you the box was a little mis-shapened with angled corners to the box stands out no matter how it is wrapped.

We gave Ashleigh and Staci the job of opening the presents and yes it is true great minds think alike.

Of course once they were opened they had to be used and

Ashleigh is now a pro at making Slurpeeeeessss!!!!!

The Bruin Boy Bunch Party

It is a tradition that we open our house for all our friends and just have a great afternoon. I must say that it was a great event again a little smaller but still great memories.











We did our celebrating a little later this year so we were able to light the Chanukiah that Sam sent from Israel.

There were two sad moments:

One would be the feeling that has kind of permeated the holiday and this whole year and that is that we miss Celia and Sam very very much. Holidays just aren't the same with out you two. We have become accustom to sharing holidays without Morgan and Nathan but as Ashleigh has so aptly said we are not cut out to be a small family

and Two the chocolate fountain died. Celia do you still have a discount?

Chanukah oh Chanukah

come light my menorah...

and what an amazing menorah actually Chanukiah it is.

Sam found this chanukaih while she was wandering around Israel in September and has been waiting anxiously for me to open in it. and Sam I can 't thank you enough because I know that you are with me each night as I light it. We have not found colored oil yet so our candles are clear... but it so brightens my night to light your beautiful chanukiah.

What is a Leslie Slut Sweater?

Funny you should ask... it all started 9 years ago when Aunt Leslie and Uncle Bill came to their first Hanukkah party and brought Celia a beautiful white sweater with only 3 buttons and showed off more skin than it covered. And when ever Celia would wear it Barry would always say is that the slut sweater from Leslie (always with a smile)?

Over time there were more sweaters and blouses for all the girls but it became a rite of passage to have Leslie in your court buying you the top that would make you look soooo cool but your parents would never buy.

Kennah however is very seriouse in opening her Leslie package

The little girls have sweaters, and jackets and ... some wonderful pictures to hold you over

dreidle dreidle dreidle

It looks like a new formation is starting....

WE (yes another one of those almost everyone moments) had a wonderful afternoon talking and catching up on what everyone is doing. The kids were cute but besides the presents I think the highlight of the day was when we set up my laptop and used SKYPE to talk and see Celia, Sean and Sammie.

We were also able to use SKYPE to exchange gifts... no we have not figured out how to move the gift across the lines but we did the next best as Sean watched Marty open the gift he had gotten him. After Marty opened his gifts Sean opened his package from Israel, but to see more you will have to keep a watch on their blog . The next two gifts were kind of ironic because Celia picked Tracy and Tracy picked Celia... so we had a swap.

we were also able to talk to Sammie and Daniel. Everyone was excited and couldn't believe what we were doing.

Sammie and Daniel and David and who knows who else and they are all waiting to meet Bubbie and go drinking with her.

It was a wonderful afternoon full of family, good food and good memories.

It's starting to smell a lot like Hanukkah

we have started to make latkas....

o.k. just realize that depending on the amount you want to make and the size of the potato some of this might vary but here is the basic recipe

3 good sized potato's not huge
1 sweet potato (optional otherwise another white potato)
1 egg
1 medium onion (sweet is good but not necessary)
4-6 garlic cloves
1/3 to 1/2 cup flour or Bisquick
salt to taste
peanut or canola oil

clean and peal the potato, cut up into chunks for the food processor use the larges shredder blade to shred the potato and onions and garlic.

take about 1 cup of the shredded material and use the puree blade to make a puree add the egg to the puree mixture

combine the puree mixture and the other shredded potato/onion mixture add salt to taste then add some of the flour to mixture to thicken it up as necessary

then start frying... don't make them to big and if you have want to get a production line going take a baking pan and line it with paper towel and after you have got a good crust going on the latka you can put it on the tray and continue to bake in the over at 350 for about another 20 minutes if you want to make some to freeze the point where you would put it on the tray is when you would let cool to freeze and then cook later at 375 for about 20 minutes.

The other thing to realize is that it is part of the Hanukkah tradition to make latkas with someone, so that is what Bubbie and I did

Has it helped with the lack of Hanukkah feeling? no but it has brought back some nice memories of making latkas when I was a kid.

Where were you last night?

Well I can tell you where we were....We (and I mean everyone, o.k. almost everyone)

We went to The Beacon Cafe for dinner with Jesse and Sarin, who are en route from Australia to Yale.

It was a great evening where the food was good and Bubbie was enjoying the Lechi Nut Saki but we had a great time and are all excitedly waiting for August.

Here are just a few more shots from a wonderful evening and for those of you who were not with us ... we missed y

the count down has started

We started putting up the decorations hoping that it would really bring the ruach (spirit) in to the house but as Ash said "I'm still not feeling it" and I have to agree with her... I know it will happen... but it's just not there yet.

The first little flicker of happy memories was when we unboxed the hanukkah vests... I know you are saying when did vests ever become a hanukkah decoration?

Call it a family custom but many years ago (1997) when the bruin boy bunch was actually called the banker boy bunch I made vests for all of us. And we wore them at the party and it was a great time for all of us. But kids being what they are grow...

and by the following year the vests were gone o.k. not gone just put away waiting for another generation of kids to wear them.

Well Ashleigh decided that the next generation is here.... and she tried to put the vest on the dog

So we are putting up the decorations and remembering times gone by and looking for new memories with bigger kids and dogs who wear my hanukkah vests

Barry and Shomer kept helping by sitting in the other room and watching Monday Night Football. There is a much better chance that I will not get hurt and that the decorations will not be eaten by the dog.