Our Christmukkah tree is up (The Girl built it from flat-packed, swearing the whole time). Uni is closed as it's under about a foot of snow, so we might get to do Hannukah candles at sunset. Which will be lovely. Have a great Hannukah, all who celebrate!

Hannukah is The Girl's favourite holiday, too, Shir. I like the 'light in the darkness' stuff. We usually have a party (and she tells an odd version of the Hannukah story featuring elephants), but we don't know enough people up here to make up party numbers. Next year! We have donuts but no latkes - too messy if it's just the two of us. We save presents for Christmas. It gets too complicated otherwise!

sj, we can certainly arrange a trip to the dubiously-titled oldest pub in Britain! It'll be great to meet you and TCG.

Where in the West Midlands did you go, Spidra? Birmingham? We pop over there quite a lot. Good shopping and some old fandom friends.

Happy first night of Hannukah, everyone! I have no fried goodies at all because Hannukah is officially WAY TOO EARLY this year and I wasn't ready. Maybe this weekend.

You'd think raising a secular Jewish family in Brooklyn would be pretty straightforward, but DH and I are still pretty uncertain on how to do it "right." Fortunately, Hannukah is pretty secular already (if you go with the historical version and not the "miracle of the oil" version, anyway) and hey, presents!

Maybe if I'm feeling really ambitious I'll try to replace our copy of Herschel and the Hannukah Goblins which met an untimely death during Dylan's "tearing up books that scare me" phase last year.

I'm going to attempt to start the process of changing my name today, and I can already feel an anxiety attack coming on. All of the places I have to go are places that I either hate to go to or are completely anxious about having to go to. At least Mom is coming to spend the day with me so I don't have to get it all done alone.

Yay, Beth!

Best wishes for Mr. Peabody.

One of our niece's cats has had seizures lately. She boarded Peter (who's orange, 15 years old, and diabetic) at the vet while she went on vacation to visit her mother. During the middle of the week, the vet called to tell her Peter was having seizures. When she got home, she found (from the vet's paperwork) that Peter got his insulin twice a day instead of the usual one a couple of times. Which probably caused the seizures and probably has also destabilized his blood sugar levels. Not to mention that Peter couldn't even get out of his carrier. And the mass that was found in his chest.

Peter had an ultrasound yesterday. Turns out he's in the early stage of heart failure (which may have been made worse by the seizures), and the mass isn't cancer. The heart failure can be treated, so we're calling it a win.

Needless to say, niece is looking for a new vet.

Is tonight the first night of Hannukah? My calendar said tomorrow was!

Aims, that is so very cool about Atwood! I love that you went as Offred.

Anit-seizure~ma to Mr. Peabody. {{Ginger}}

Happy first night of Hannukah, everyone! I have no fried goodies at all because Hannukah is officially WAY TOO EARLY this year and I wasn't ready. Maybe this weekend.

Jess, when you visited for the award your grandparents received (2 years ago? egad, maybe 3?!?), you had schnecken, right? There's a new book out about the history of Virginia Bakery (home of the famous schnecken; since they closed, another bakery in town makes the schnecken now).

Tim worked at Virginia Bakery for a long time, so we went to the book signing last night, and in addition to the books available for purchase, there was a lovely pyramid of schnecken available for purchase. Naturally, I bought one and brought it to work this morning.

I think my co-workers actually did a dance of joy.

For those unfamiliar with schnecken, behold: [link] It is a thing of beauty and yummaliciousness.

Is tonight the first night of Hannukah? My calendar said tomorrow was!

Hannukah starts at sundown tonight, so tomorrow is the first day.

Tep, I meant to respond to your schnecken post on FB - I've been eating that stuff my whole life!! In very very small doses, which is why I'm still alive to tell the tale. Mmmmm....butter.....

In very very small doses, which is why I'm still alive to tell the tale.

I warned my co-workers to eat small pieces, and that if they didn't, I am not legally responsible for their heart attacks.

I saw the schnecken post but didn't have time to click through. What is it?

A schnecken is what you would get if a cinnamon roll and a pound of butter had a baby and then baked it in a loaf pan. With raisins.

(Kind of. It's denser than a cinnamon roll, but I can't think of another bread to compare it to.)