The sweet celebration
I think tonight is...the fifth night of Hanukkah, is it? I have a couple'a friends who celebrate Hanukkah, so if I see them I'll ask 'em. The Etsy shop today is TchotchkesDesigns.
The fun thing about this one is that it's not reserved solely for Hanukkah like my last bow is. I can wear this during Passover or anytime I dern well please.
Yes, I said above that I have friends who celebrate Hanukkah. I have a menorah myself, but these folks legit celebrate the holiday. They're members of a black church here in town, and they prefer Hanukkah to Christmas because of the commercialism that sadly has taken Christmas over. They still make a big to-do about Jesus's birth, but they celebrate that year-around (as Christians should). I remember that conversation well, by the way, the one where I learned that one of my closest friends celebrated Hanukkah. She has a little boy named a variant of "Anniston," and we were discussing a little girl who had been killed in the then-recent tornado, a little girl named another variant of "Anniston" (the story of Annistyn Rackley can be found HERE). Even today that story makes me choke up a little; the Rackley family did everything they were supposed to, but a frame house and a high-end EF4 tornado meant that no place above ground was safe. Basements are not common here in the Bootheel due to the fault line and a very high water table, so getting underground was out of the question, and...well, yeah. Annistyn was killed, her father and sisters were injured, and her mother darn near got killed but ultimately survived. My friend got a little teary talking about it, because she too has three little ones and she was no doubt thinking about her own family being in such a hellish position. Eventually the conversation segued from the tornado to the upcoming holiday season and went as follows:
ME: Well, I hope y'all have a merry Christmas, and a safe one. I hope we don't have any more storms. <turning to the children> By the way, do you kids want anything special for Christmas?
HER: Oh, we don't celebrate Christmas.
ME (intrigued): Hey cool, do you do Kwanzaa?
HER (big smile): Nope, we celebrate Hanukkah.
ME: <bounces and claps with an enormous smile> EEEEEE, I love Hanukkah!!!
LOL, last year when that friend was leaving the library I hollered after her "Y'all take care, and happy Hanukkah!" "OWWWWW!!! YOU REMEMBERED!!!" she whooped. Yep, I thought it was cool, so I remembered! LOL, I love that friend. She's loud and happy and has a good sense of humor, but she also makes sure her kids stay on the straight and narrow. The kids, in turn, are growing up to be fine young folks. They're one of my all-time favorite families. Next time I see 'em I need to ask what their church does when Hanukkah rolls around, if they gather on all the nights or if it's just one night, all that stuff. This year should be a particularly happy one for them, because that church has a new building to go to. It's a plain white building that used to be a restaurant, and now it's a church! It makes me happy to see that their church is growing, particularly when one of our churches in town had to close a year or so ago. I just hope it has some sort of shelter; that building took a lot of damage in 1981, when the last big tornado hit. When Malden gets hit the tornadoes tend to hit the north end (not always, but usually), so I hope those folks have a shelter or a plan!
Cheers,
RagingMoon1987
Yes, I said above that I have friends who celebrate Hanukkah. I have a menorah myself, but these folks legit celebrate the holiday. They're members of a black church here in town, and they prefer Hanukkah to Christmas because of the commercialism that sadly has taken Christmas over. They still make a big to-do about Jesus's birth, but they celebrate that year-around (as Christians should). I remember that conversation well, by the way, the one where I learned that one of my closest friends celebrated Hanukkah. She has a little boy named a variant of "Anniston," and we were discussing a little girl who had been killed in the then-recent tornado, a little girl named another variant of "Anniston" (the story of Annistyn Rackley can be found HERE). Even today that story makes me choke up a little; the Rackley family did everything they were supposed to, but a frame house and a high-end EF4 tornado meant that no place above ground was safe. Basements are not common here in the Bootheel due to the fault line and a very high water table, so getting underground was out of the question, and...well, yeah. Annistyn was killed, her father and sisters were injured, and her mother darn near got killed but ultimately survived. My friend got a little teary talking about it, because she too has three little ones and she was no doubt thinking about her own family being in such a hellish position. Eventually the conversation segued from the tornado to the upcoming holiday season and went as follows:
ME: Well, I hope y'all have a merry Christmas, and a safe one. I hope we don't have any more storms. <turning to the children> By the way, do you kids want anything special for Christmas?
HER: Oh, we don't celebrate Christmas.
ME (intrigued): Hey cool, do you do Kwanzaa?
HER (big smile): Nope, we celebrate Hanukkah.
ME: <bounces and claps with an enormous smile> EEEEEE, I love Hanukkah!!!
LOL, last year when that friend was leaving the library I hollered after her "Y'all take care, and happy Hanukkah!" "OWWWWW!!! YOU REMEMBERED!!!" she whooped. Yep, I thought it was cool, so I remembered! LOL, I love that friend. She's loud and happy and has a good sense of humor, but she also makes sure her kids stay on the straight and narrow. The kids, in turn, are growing up to be fine young folks. They're one of my all-time favorite families. Next time I see 'em I need to ask what their church does when Hanukkah rolls around, if they gather on all the nights or if it's just one night, all that stuff. This year should be a particularly happy one for them, because that church has a new building to go to. It's a plain white building that used to be a restaurant, and now it's a church! It makes me happy to see that their church is growing, particularly when one of our churches in town had to close a year or so ago. I just hope it has some sort of shelter; that building took a lot of damage in 1981, when the last big tornado hit. When Malden gets hit the tornadoes tend to hit the north end (not always, but usually), so I hope those folks have a shelter or a plan!
Cheers,
RagingMoon1987
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