Better Late than Never

Today we celebrated Hanukkah. Yep, I know Hanukkah was last month but last month we were all sick. Swine flu sick, high fevers, coughing, a little vomit, and some bronchitis as icing on the cake.

We like to have family and friends over one night during Hanukkah and it just wasn't happening last month. We were all pretty disappointed, we look forward to getting together. So I got this idea that we could just wait till everyone is healthy and just do it then. So finally everyone is feeling good. I called my brother and we align the calenders. As usual our schedules are a jumbled nightmare. The Engineer and my brother work Monday through Friday. My sister in law and I work weekends. Getting a day when we are all off together doesn't happen often so when we checked and realized that the only day for the next three weeks was 5 days away we just went for it. As you may remember from this post I haven't really kept up with the housework. So needless to say having 5 days to get everything ready was going to be a challenge. I knew The Engineer was going to be in a panic over it too. So I did what any self respecting wife would do. I didn't tell him until 2 days before.

After that therapeutic post I did feel better and was able to get a little more focus. So the house did get some attention and was it wasn't as bad. There still was plenty of work to do. The Engineer in his typical fashion (and I'm not complaining) got to work. I went around putting miscellaneous things away while he tackled mountains of laundry, dusting, vacuuming and the bathrooms. He even helped the kids get their rooms to a point that it was safe to enter.

So yesterday was spent cooking and cleaning. Well, until I went to work. But this morning when I got home from work everything looked wonderful. The Engineer had worked his magic.

We had to be at the synagogue this morning and didn't get home until 1PM, everyone is coming at 3PM. Yikes!

I baked a pie (pecan, every ones favorite) and slapped together a chocolate cake. The Vet had given me a cake pan in the shape of a menorah for Hanukkah, the cake turned out really cool.

So everyone shows up and as usual I totally blow my time I'd like to have dinner. I wanted to eat by 4PM but as usual I totally misjudge how long it takes to make latkes. So friends and family chip in and we get it done. As usual Just Me saves my hiney helping me cook and get everything together. She even helped my daughter make the icing for the cake and then frosted it. It was one of my favorite holiday dinners, brisket, latkes, steamed broccoli, asparagus and a nice big salad, thank you Doc (that's my sister in law).

It was a wonderful night, you can't beat it, family, friends, food, good conversation and lots of kids having a great time. And since I finally have a kitchen that is big enough to support cooking and conversation I didn't miss a thing.