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REPOST: the order of a seder

April 09, 2025 in family, holiday

* this is the first seder we will be celebrating in california. i am just beside myself that my darling boy will be home from college for a few days and will be able to celebrate with us. of course, we will also have my sweetie girl in attendance. i will not actually be hosting this year as we have been invited to the home of one of my dearest, oldest friends. i might have to stay late and vacuum HER house at the end of the night because vacuuming up the matzo crumbs is an essential part of the seder “order” for me! HAPPY, HAPPY PASSOVER all! x0x0xx

my childhood plates! x0x

March 25, 2025 in family, holiday

(i LOVE these fun dishes… even the box is adorable!)

i am just beside myself today because my rainbow heller plates and cups and bowls arrived. i grew up in the 70’s with these guys - we had large yellow plates, small orange plates and both yellow and orange cups and bowls. i was a pretty simple eater (i still have the palette of a five year old) so my mom would cut up veggies and fruit and cheese and meat and i would make “faces” out of everything on the orange plates before i ate it. i have big memories of cheerios or mint chip ice cream in the bowls. and i loved laying my fingers against the curved cup handles when drinking my milk. at some point after we got older, my mom replaced the plastic set with ceramic plates (still yellow!) but i always thought the heller ones were more fun. and now i have my own collection just in time for outdoor dinners on the deck. how many of you grew up with these too? x0x

happy, happy mother's day! x0x0x

May 12, 2024 in family, hank, holiday

(back in days when all of my loves would end up in the same bed by morning…)

i LOVE being a mama… especially when my kids are asleep! they look like little angels (even now that they are teenagers and hank is technically middle aged.) their rhythmic, peaceful breathing (hank’s sounds more like a train) is really soothing and makes me feel like everthing is right in the world. i do not have a consistent meditation practice, but when i do it, i always crawl back in bed with my sweeties and lay one hand on someone’s chest so i can feel it going up and down. these days that sweetie is usually hank because my other babies sometimes tell me they need “space” and sometimes they even lock their doors! luckily hank never needs space. when they wake up we never know what will happen. sometimes they are delightful and sometimes they are less so. even when they are less so, my love for them feels so BIG it’s almost painful. i am so GRATEFUL to be the mother of these lovey darlings. loads of LOVE to all of the mothers and those who mother. x0x0x0x

REPOST: the order of a seder

April 23, 2024 in family, holiday

* this is the last seder i will be hosting in our boulder house… i have so many wonderful memories of passover celebrations around this table and i am so grateful for all of the lovely friends who shared in them! HAPPY, HAPPY PASSOVER! x0x0x

seder means “order.” there is an order to every aspect of the passover celebration from the way the seder plate is prepared to which course is served first and second and third to what prayer is said, what song is sung, what question is asked and when. even though i am not jewish, i have been hosting passover dinners for nearly twenty years. inevitably i mix up at least one aspect of the order. sometimes i even schedule the seder for the wrong evening - the jewish calendar is confusing and i am not always sure if “begins at sundown” means the dinner should take place that night or the next. i give myself a pass on this as a shiksa mama raising jewish children. i have enough trouble with simple time telling (my mom thinks that’s because i had the chicken pox the week i was meant to learn it in first grade) and adjusting to different time zones and daylight savings.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY my darling lucy! x0x0x

April 11, 2024 in family, holiday

i am flabbergasted to share that my dearest, darling baby girl is FOURTEEN years old today. i honestly can’t believe it. maybe because she is my youngest, i never anticipated that she would actually grow up. but in her powerful, spicy, hilarious, cheeky way she has marched ahead and become a full-on teenager, a YOUNG WOMAN even (i can’t say “lady” - she burps and swears like a sailor!) this last year has been a doozy with loads of changes and milestones both for lucy and for our whole family: her bat mitzvah, theo preparing to leave home for college, ALL of us planning a move to california this summer, lucy’s grammy worthy lashes, theo’s mustache, the sale of both of our boulder homes, the purchase of our new berkeley house and lu preparing to attend my old high school… JUICE THE JACKETS! i have already pulled out my old cheer uniform for her - maybe she will wear it for halloween?

REPOST: easter brunch

March 26, 2024 in family, holiday, recipe

my whole life there have been two essential easter recipes served at our brunch: my mother’s mushroom crust quiche and her easter buns. they are both a little trashy… the quiche has smashed up saltines in the crust and the buns are made with the dough that comes in a can you bang on the counter to pop open. but they are both delicious. the quiche (or KWEE-CHEE as theo used to call it) LOOKS a little more elegant, but the buns are never pretty. the filling always squirts out and the jam slides around so they are just a mess. i have tried and tried to clean them up to no avail. when new people come for easter, they usually bypass them on the buffet and i have to force them to try one… no one has ever been disappointed. AND they are both still yummy, cold, the next morning as leftovers. happy, happy easter all! x0xx

girlie weekend (with hank of course!) at THE BROADMOOR! x0x0xx

March 12, 2024 in family, hank, holiday, travel

(how PRETTY is this hotel nestled into mountains?)

there are few places i like to visit as much as the broadmoor. my heart just soars when i am there and i feel kind of giddy. set against some group of colorado mountains and centered around a big, beautiful lake, it is unbelievably scenic. the interior spaces are so detailed and intricate and layered you are always discovering something new. on this visit, i really started noticing all the swans. aside from the actual swans who live on the lake, there are swans throughout the resort painted on the walls, tiled into floor mosaics, featured in oil paintings and even edible meringue swans available at the little patisserie. i HAVE been watching “the feud” featuring truman capote and his swans obsessively, so maybe that’s why i was so drawn to them.

happy, happy valentine's day! x0x0xx

February 14, 2024 in family, hank, holiday

we’re sending you all so much LOVE on this valentine’s day! x0x0x

photo: heather knierim of HBK photography

aloha! x0x

January 23, 2024 in family, holiday

since theo is a SENIOR this year (honestly, it is HARD for me to even write that as i am already torturing myself with anticipatory grief when i should probably just be enjoying him) we are trying to do all “the things” before he goes to college. so we went to hawaii over the holidays. i have not been in at least thirty years and the kids and first have never been so it was pretty exciting.

PRAISE JESUS we made it to january! x0xx

January 09, 2024 in family, holiday

(artwork: lesik aleksandr)

i DO love the holidays and thank goodness because we do them ALL: thankgiving, sinterklaas, hanukkah, my birthday (i DON’T love this one as much!), christmas and new years. i love baking the cookies, making the gingerbreads, lighting the candles, driving around to see the lights, putting out our clogs, decorating the tree, hanging the stockings, eating the latkes (i DON’T like making them - too messy!), hiding the shelf elves and their reindeer friend, going to the parties, delivering the cookies, sending the holiday cards (although this is always a loaded task!) receiving the holiday cards (much more FUN!), giving the gifts, enjoying my mother’s sticky buns, finding out who got the monkey and spending time with family. but i am always EXHAUSTED by the time we get to january and so grateful to bunker down and have a super quiet month (after i have VACUUMED up all the pine needles, which is my absolute favorite post-christmas task.) wishing you all a quiet, restful month with lots of sleep and TV! (my recent favorites: lessons in chemistry, black cake and the gilded age.) x0x0xx

HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR! x0xx

January 01, 2024 in family, holiday

wishing you all peace, happiness and beautiful experiences in 2024. x0x0xx

REPOST: the monkey

December 25, 2023 in family, holiday

(even at 15 my grandmother seemed to know exactly what she wanted)

my paternal grandmother was fierce. she lived the way she wanted and you pretty much just went along. she liked things a certain way and if something wasn’t to her choosing she would wave her hand, say, “oh FISH!” and carry on as she deemed appropriate. you didn’t really want to get in her way.

REPOST: gingerbread houses

December 19, 2023 in holiday, family

* i am feeling really SAPPY and a bit gutted because this is the last year theo will be home to help with the gingerbread houses before he goes to college… i have no idea where the time went and i kind of can’t wait to be a grandma so i can share this tradtion with littles again… x0x

my birthday twin! x0x0x

December 12, 2023 in holiday

(anne marie and me on our fiftieth birthday! )

today is my FIFTY-FIFTH birthday! i am stunned and quite horrified to be associated with this GIANT number that is odd to boot (i really prefer even numbers.) i am not sure how to process this milestone and realize i need to start thinking of myself as SIXTY because that’s what happens when you round up and time seems to be moving at warp speed (theo is GRADUATING this spring and hopefully going to college in the fall - HOW did that happen??) so i need to be prepared.

REPOST: raisin-free cranberry sauce

November 21, 2023 in holiday, family

* something really interesting happened to me a few weeks ago… i tried eating blueberries and i LIKED them! previously, i have only enjoyed them in eggos and i’m pretty sure those aren’t real blueberries. hank really likes them too so we have just been scarfing them down. my kids were wondering if i might give raisins another try… of course that is just ABSURD! which is why i am reposting my favorite raisin-free cranberry sauce recipe in anticipation of thanksgiving… ENJOY! x0x

* theo went to a “friendsgiving” the other night and brought my cranberries and they were a bit HIT with the teen crowd! x0x

HAPPY, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! x00x

October 31, 2023 in hank, holiday, pet

(halloween hank as a turkey! i think he’s worried that we’ll throw him on the thanksgiving table…)

there are two things i love about halloween: dog costumes and candy. all the scary, bloody, gruesome stuff i could really do without. also the WORRY about whether my kids will make it home alive. this year hank is going as a ROASTED TURKEY! i am beside myself because i think his back legs already look like drumsticks.

REPOST: yom kippur, the day of atonement, is coming!

September 21, 2023 in family, holiday, recipe

(hank thinking about his transgressions during the year)

* i am reposting my story about yom kippur as it is approaching… l’shana tova! x0x

this week is yom kippur, the day of atonement in the jewish religion. while i never converted, i am raising my children in the faith of their father (with santa and the bunny thrown in) and i have spent more time in temple than i have in any other religious setting. i have hosted loads of seders, rosh hashana dinners and break fasts (i can cook all of the holiday food, except brisket - my brisket is TERRIBLE - so we have roast chicken instead), i know a fair bit of the prayers, or at least the tunes and i have a general understanding of the fundamentals of the religion.

happy, happy new year! x0x

September 19, 2023 in family, holiday

(hank sharing his sweet rosh apples)

when we moved to boulder we did not join a temple straight away… first we collected a group of jewish (or half jewish) families that we have been celebrating shabbat, rosh hashana, yom kippur, hanukkah and passover with for over a dozen years. this special group has made us feel grounded and connected and has been such an important aspect of our lives in boulder. also, several people in the circle know how to make a proper, delicious brisket, which is my achilles heel, so my kids have been able to ENJOY that signature dish, rather than dread it.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my darling dad! x0x0x

September 03, 2023 in family, holiday

wishing my very handsome father the happiest of birthdays! so excited to celebrate with you! i LOVE you higher than the sky is high and deeper than the ocean is deep! x0x0x

to read more about my dad click here or here

REPOST: my bay area restaurant tour

August 15, 2023 in exercise, holiday, travel

(artwork: aaron alvarez)

* i am reposting this story because our summer time in california has come to an end. we ate and ate as much as we could. this summer we were forced to explore new spots because cesar, one of our favorites has closed…i am still SLAYED about that. here are some of our new places: