Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah doesn't actually start until sundown of the 21st - but that's the day we leave for Washington to see Matt's family.

Soooooo. We started last night.

Night 1 brought our 3rd annual Hanukkah Dinner - but we decided neither of us is a big fan of matzoh ball soup...so we subsituted jalapeno cornbread. It went quite well with our brisket and latkes....

For the first night of Hanukkah:
Matt got this soap. It's locally-made, and smells great - even to my scent-picky husband!

Matt got me the book A Christmas Story (the one that inspired the movie). I had mentioned once that I wanted to read it, and he sweetly took note and got me a copy :-)

Bennett got a winter coat. It doesn't fit. It's too big. Oh well!

For the second night of Hanukkah:
Matt got 4 bars of a soap (Bee and Flower Sandalwood) that he used regularly when we met in college. It dries out his skin like crazy, but he loves the smell of it. It's difficult to find in stores, but the smell of the soap I gave Matt on night one made me think of it, and I found it online! When the box of soap arrived, the smell brought back memories of when we first met.

Matt got me a datebook - which, seriously? Was one of the things on my amazon wishlist that I was most hoping to get this year. I'm a dork. And, yes, I'm going back to paper after spending MAY years using my computer and/or a PDA. I don't even know how may PDAs have been handed down and gifted to me!

Bennett got mittens. They're too small, I think. Two gifts in a row that don't fit. At least he's too young to remember the crappy shopping his mom did!

Other than Hanukkah, the big news is that Bennett is finally sleeping better again (as of the past couple days)! Matt and I think we're in the eye of the teething storm. Bennett was working on 7 teeth at once. the first 3 are clearly through. The next two might be in enough to not bother him, but I'm not sure. The last two seem like they could start bothering him any day....we'll see.

I'm just glad he's no longer screaming in pain all day, waking up every couple hours, and generally being sleepless, cranky, and unhappy. He's back to being his smiley, social, deep-sleeping self. Hooray!

He was only up once last night. Tonight I think he was woken up by the dogs barking at the vacuum cleaner in the living room (Bennett is terrified of the vacuum, by the way....), but he went right back down - so we'll see!