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Thanksgiving/Chanukah Observed
My family tends to celebrate Chanukah, no matter when it falls, on Thanksgiving, since that's the only time we get the full set of descendants at my grandparents' house. Despite a lot of anticipation and lead-up, this year's Thanksgiving/Chanukah Observed was very low-drama, easy, and, in fact, fun. Possibly because we used up all our drama points in preparation for it?
I went directly from work to my grandparents' on Wednesday night to meet my parents and sister there. My grandmother and I managed to miss each other for ten minutes at a very cold Caltrain station, but otherwise Wednesday night was pretty great. Thursday my sister and I ran all around Redwood City, Menlo Park and Palo Alto looking for last-minute gifts for our cousins, and ultimately came up with a rather excellent set of gifts from the only stores that were open. Namely, a hardware store and a drug store.
In the original plan, my parents, sister and I were going to drive up to my hometown Thursday night, spend Friday there, and then drive back down to the Bay Area on Saturday morning to take my sister to the airport and send her back to Chicago. Happily, about a week ago I pointed out that this seemed like the most stressful driving-to-time-at-home ratio possible, and instead we all ran away to a hotel in the Marina after Thanksgiving. This had the fun advantage of letting me stay in San Francisco while also feeling like I was in a radically different city than the one I live in. Fun fact: when I am in the Marina with my family Marina People stop being my sworn enemy.
Friday we went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum and saw Harry Potter, braved a mall (fools!) and went back to my place to meet Olivia for dinner. This morning, they were all off again.
Olivia's Parents Theatre, a phone call:
OLIVIA: Diane is FILMING Olivia's Parents Theatre!
DIANE [in background]: I am NOT filming OPT...
OLIVIA: There's an acronym for it now?
MOLLY: You should register oliviasparentstheatre.com! And make a YouTube channel! And sell OPT merchandise!
Best fact learned from hotel-room History Channel programming:
According to facts derived from ancient Hindu texts, there were atomic bombs at Sodom and Ghamorra. These atomic bombs came from the same aliens the Aryan race is descended from, and Hitler hoped to harness these powers for the Third Reich. Or... something.
My sister and I used to make fun of the History Channel for being the Nazi channel 11 months of the year and the Jesus channel in December, but apparently at some point they became the Aliens in the Past Channel. Sigh.
Best fact learned from the Curious George exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum:
The Reys (AKA the Reyersbachs) escaped from Nazis ON BICYCLE, not once but TWICE. They biked away from both Hamburg and Paris immediately before those cities fell.
I am pretty sure that that is more interesting than people in tin hats explaining why the Daleks worked with Nazi Germany.
My family tends to celebrate Chanukah, no matter when it falls, on Thanksgiving, since that's the only time we get the full set of descendants at my grandparents' house. Despite a lot of anticipation and lead-up, this year's Thanksgiving/Chanukah Observed was very low-drama, easy, and, in fact, fun. Possibly because we used up all our drama points in preparation for it?
I went directly from work to my grandparents' on Wednesday night to meet my parents and sister there. My grandmother and I managed to miss each other for ten minutes at a very cold Caltrain station, but otherwise Wednesday night was pretty great. Thursday my sister and I ran all around Redwood City, Menlo Park and Palo Alto looking for last-minute gifts for our cousins, and ultimately came up with a rather excellent set of gifts from the only stores that were open. Namely, a hardware store and a drug store.
In the original plan, my parents, sister and I were going to drive up to my hometown Thursday night, spend Friday there, and then drive back down to the Bay Area on Saturday morning to take my sister to the airport and send her back to Chicago. Happily, about a week ago I pointed out that this seemed like the most stressful driving-to-time-at-home ratio possible, and instead we all ran away to a hotel in the Marina after Thanksgiving. This had the fun advantage of letting me stay in San Francisco while also feeling like I was in a radically different city than the one I live in. Fun fact: when I am in the Marina with my family Marina People stop being my sworn enemy.
Friday we went to the Contemporary Jewish Museum and saw Harry Potter, braved a mall (fools!) and went back to my place to meet Olivia for dinner. This morning, they were all off again.
Olivia's Parents Theatre, a phone call:
OLIVIA: Diane is FILMING Olivia's Parents Theatre!
DIANE [in background]: I am NOT filming OPT...
OLIVIA: There's an acronym for it now?
MOLLY: You should register oliviasparentstheatre.com! And make a YouTube channel! And sell OPT merchandise!
Best fact learned from hotel-room History Channel programming:
According to facts derived from ancient Hindu texts, there were atomic bombs at Sodom and Ghamorra. These atomic bombs came from the same aliens the Aryan race is descended from, and Hitler hoped to harness these powers for the Third Reich. Or... something.
My sister and I used to make fun of the History Channel for being the Nazi channel 11 months of the year and the Jesus channel in December, but apparently at some point they became the Aliens in the Past Channel. Sigh.
Best fact learned from the Curious George exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum:
The Reys (AKA the Reyersbachs) escaped from Nazis ON BICYCLE, not once but TWICE. They biked away from both Hamburg and Paris immediately before those cities fell.
I am pretty sure that that is more interesting than people in tin hats explaining why the Daleks worked with Nazi Germany.
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