The eldest's lovely French wife and the youngest's fetching Finnish girlfriend tell me they enjoyed their first Hanukkah, but I suspect they're just being polite. We did bupkis to win them over. We forgot to light the menorah, although we had the best intentions. We forgot to spin a dreidel. Hanukkah, come to think of it, was an epic fail on our part. Unless you count taking them to an annual Hanukkah party, where they ate their first latkes and participated in a "Yankee Swap," where the gift you pick from a pile may get stolen right out from under you, not once but twice. The confused looks on their pretty punims. Welcome to America! Which brings us to Monday. The gals are all about the Christmas, so I'm doing everything I can to make it special. Their relatives are far away. Why shouldn't I overcompensate and do super Christmasy things? The only problem: I don't know from Christmas, French, Finnish or Sherman Oaks-ish.
Christmas-wise, I'm taking a crash course online. Come Yuletide, there will be gifts, but no Tannenbaum. There will be foods from their home countries, but no snow on the lawn. There will be lox, but no bagels. Champagne and mulled wine, but no Mogen David. And thrown in for good measure, potato pancakes to die for. Listen, it's a learning curve. But then, what isn't? Whether you light a candle or hang an ornament, bottom line, it's all about family and love. Like I always say, there's a
bissel Christmas in all of us. Even the SJG.
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