One Thousand Latkes?!

I'm one of those people who can never say no (well, almost never). I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing but every now and then something happens to make me question my eagerness to always offer help...case and point:

The woman at my Shul who is in charge of our big Chanukah celebration is leaving on a cruise today to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary. Prior to leaving for her big celebration, she sent an e-mail out to the sisterhood members and a bunch of other members asking them to help make latkes this Sunday and next Sunday. She explained that we will need 1000 latkes and how she won't be here this Sunday because she is going on her cruise. Then as I continued to read it said something to the effect of, so if you can help, please contact ... because she will be overseeing everything in the kitchen. I rubbed my eyes and did a double take - did the e-mail really say MY name and have MY e-mail address on it?

Is she MESHUGANAH?

I mean...

How did offering to help turn into being in charge?

How does one go about making 1000 latkes?

Can someone tell me how to put a food processor together?

What happens if no one offers to help and I am standing in the shul kitchen alone on Sunday?

Couldn't we have gone with my stereotype and made egg rolls and wonton soup instead? (Oh wait, those aren't traditional Chanukah foods - but at least I know how to make those!)

Does it matter that (as much as I hate to admit it) I have only ever made latkes using the Streit's mix? (Hey...I could never make them from scratch as good as my Grandma Rose Z"L, so I never even tried!)

Don't food issues disqualify me for this position?

The "recipe" she gave me was SO VAGUE (peel potatoes, peel onions, put them in the food processor, mix them with maztoh meal and fry)...should I be really scared?

Oy gevalt...how did this happen to me?

'Tis the season

Each year it seems like my neighbors start decorating for Christmas earlier and earlier. This year they all seemed to start about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. Since then it seems that each day I drive through my community there are more and more houses COVERED with lights and decorations and every neighbor seems to be trying to outdo the next. Don't get me wrong, I love the holiday season and we too have decorated our home with our hannukiyot prominently displayed in our windows along with some driedel window clings, but I just can't compete with this:

or this:

I am ok with the fact that in a community of 72 homes where we are the only Jewish family, our house will look surprisingly barren. But a tiny part of me can't help but want to jump into this decorating competition. But am I going to have to resort to this?

Another LO masterpiece

Certainly her Hebrew is far from perfect but I am still kvelling.

vahavta.mp3

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(It may even make you cry even more than this.)

Second Annual Thank Your First Commenter Day

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and from the brilliant mind of Neil over at Citizen of the Month, today is the "Second Annual Thank Your First Commenter" Day.

Since I have just a handful of readers I assumed that my first commenter was one of my all time favourite bloggers, Psycho Toddler. With that hat, could you even wonder why he is one of my favourites?

Turns out that I was wrong and my very first commenter was actually Plantation. He wrote, "Hi. Welcome to the crazy blogosphere. Best of luck." He is a talented writer and his blog Chasing the American Dream is also one of my very favourites, so be sure to check him out. So here's my shout out to Todd...thanks for being my first commenter and thanks for your awesome blog. I owe you a Starbucks unsweetened iced coffee (loaded with sweet and low, cinnamon, and half-and-half of course).

(And thanks to Neil for trying to teach us to be gracious to other bloggers.)

Koshermania

So, my little sister has so much extra time on her hands as of late, she has been spending a great deal of time watching daytime TV. I'm not a big TV watcher and had she not called me about this, I would have had no idea.

Apparently the wrestler Hulk Hogan has a television show called Hogan Knows Best. My little sister explained that in the latest episode it seems that he has moved to Miami to an area where many of his neighbors are Orthodox. (I wonder where that is?) Trying to be friendly, his wife made some cookies to bring to the neighbors and this is when they find out that no one will accept them because they are not KOSHER! They want to have a BBQ for the neighbors so they set out on a quest for kosher foods. They end up at Kosher World where Hulk gets a Kosher 101 lesson. He then says he feels like eating kosher meats is healthier and therefore he should always only eat kosher meats.

Who would have ever thought? Hulk Hogan a new spokesperson for the Kosher Meat industry? Stranger things have happened.

Sing it LOUD

LO was in rare form at shul on Friday. She was singing LOUDER than usual (which I still find hard to believe). I guess I am numb to it because I didn't notice it until I realized that almost the entire congregation was looking at us.

After services, many people told her how lovely her singing is. Due to this encouragement, I shudder to think of how LOUD she will be next Shabbat.

Here for your listening pleasure...LO's version of the Shema:

shema.mp3

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Stay tuned...who knows what I can get her to sing next!