Ah, Chanukah

I have just returned from the Chanukah Night at my parent's house, so named because we'll probably only meet the one time even if it does extend eight days. Latkes, candles, beer and wine, and presents, so many presents...I absolutely can't believe all the stuff that I got! I didn't ask for anything so it was all a surprise. The list:

1. Six (count 'em, six) classical CD's from Dad and Little Bro.
2. Socks, 2 pair (a Chanukah tradition for our family that is also a little Harry Potter. I think I'd cry if there were a Chanukah without any socks.)
2. A Day-by-Day calendar with crossword puzzles on it!
3. A nifty little jewelry-box thing that is bright orange shiny vinyl and shaped like a fish! So cute. 4. A hundred-dollar check tucked into the jewelry box.
5. A box of Ferraro Rocher chocolates, my favorite!
6. One of those little nesting Russian dolls, I can't remember what they're called, Matroyska? Matrioshka? from their Alaskan trip last summer.
7. A beautiful, arty little compact mirror and magnifyer.
8. A gift certificate to Petsmart, with not only Alice and Cathy's names on it, but Speeder and Earl's as well. I can't believe my mom remembers the names of our fish...

It's an embarrasment of riches; I wasn't expecting anything like that. I'm glad we did the Salvation Army thing instead of buying gifts for Mom and Dad, but it does lack the exitement factor a little. And, I forgot that little bro has Winter Camp with the boyscouts all next week, so I didn't bring his present because D couldn't be there. Since D paid for most of it (Age of Empire III, 50 bucks (it has three with a roman numeral, Mara, not the number three; do you know how that is? It looks like three "i"s in a row?" Gosh, I love being thought so highly of by a 14-year-old)) --I thought he would like to be present for the presenting so to speak. D is perpetually soft-hearted when it comes to the holidays, though. He will work straight through and miss the holiday himself in order to give his guys the day off; a practice from his divorced/single days: they have families, let them be at home, I can work... I love him for it even if he does miss things. Mom and Dad made a brisket especially in his honor thinking he'd be there. It's almost 11 at night now, and he won't be home for a few hours yet.

So, I didn't bring any presents over there and walked out with a bag of them. Gosh. Now I'm listening to my new CD of Schubert's Trout Quintet and munching chocolates. Ahh, Chanukah. Interestingly, what D is giving me and what the two of us are giving KK is the same thing; this beautiful candle-holder/sculpture/thingie. It's made of a dark metal, maybe iron, about 2 feet tall, a graceful swooping shape with three tea-light holders suspended in it. We saw it at a specialty candle store in a mall and liked it so much that I had to find a loophole to the no-buying-yourself-stuff-the-week-before-C/Ch. Aha--he hasn't got me anything yet! He can get me this thing that we like so much, and we can get her one too! Perfect. It isn't as wierd as it sounds because she and I do have overlapping taste in decor and art, so there are things that we both own, inspired by the other's apartment. I'm looking forward to giving it to her even if she did want gift certificates for work-clothes.

Yesterday, we went to IKEA to get the chair that is my gift to him, and it was great! The store wasn't at all crowded. We've decided to make it our Christmas-eve tradition, to go to IKEA and browse. The chair is so comfortable, and it should be better for D's back than the old futon that serves as our sofa. Plus, I really like the way it looks. And it's a wonderful chair for reading--I spent most of the day curled up in it reading Jane Austin's Persuasion. Someday I will have read everything that Austin ever wrote, and that makes me sad. I realized about half-way through it that the second Bridget Jones' Diary book is based on Persuasion in the way that the first is based on Pride and Prejudice. The similarity was too great to overlook--some scenes were practically lifted right off the pages--and it made me laugh, because I could predict what would happen in Persuasion based on the Bridget Jones correlary. We're going to have to re-arrange all the living-room furniture to fit the chair in, but that was long-overdue anyways. Maybe we'll do that tomorrow, if he's still off work.