Bye Bye to an Old Friend

He was a  trusted friend for over 10 years.

Worked furiously to help me make mini's first birthday cake when we had no idea how to bake without eggs.  Helped us try countless cookie and recipes, letting us know which worked best.  Sat patiently while we worked on batches of frosting upon frosting, not caring that he was sticky and covered in cocoa powder everywhere.

He helped us with baby showers for friends and coworkers.  Helped mini eat healthy food when we discovered pumpkin protein bread, zucchini bread, and spinach muffins.  He brought warmth, comfort, tradition to every holiday, helping us with everything from hamentaschen to honey cake.  He was our secret weapon for the perfect apple pies at Thanksgiving, and homemade whipped cream.

It was because of him that oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the doormen on Christmas and entertained children on playdates brilliantly for short bursts of time.

In short, he was always there when we needed him.

And then, suddenly......he was gone.  Just. Like. That.

2013: The Year of the Month-Long Purim

Perhaps it's just us, but does Purim seem to have gotten hopped up on steroids this year?

The holiday is one day, yet it seems to have gone on forever.  In fact, the holiday has barely started and we're already Purim'd out.  How'd that happen?

We have some theories.



Exhibit One: Purim Carnivals going on for weeks.

For some reason, this is the year several people decided to hold Purim festivities on alternate dates in order to boost attendance.  After all, it's impossible to attend your school, synagogue, and local community center carnival all in one day!  So for practical purposes the dates were sandwiched before and after the holiday.  Of course, with Purim being redonculously early this year, the alternate dates fell over winter break, meaning no one would be around to celebrate, rendering the alternate date futile.  The solution? Push it back earlier.  The result?  Purim carnivals scattered from Feb 10th all the way to March 3rd.

Exhibit Two: Purim is super trendy this year.

For some reason, Purim was a hot topic this year.  Maybe it was the explosion of social media, generating Jew-envy amongst those forced to look at droolworthy picture after picture of hamentaschen on Pinterest.  Maybe it was the party and celebration invites being spread like wildfire.   Or maybe it was the intersection of Purim's relevance to current sentiments and values in our culture, inspiring articles such as Why I like Purim as a Queer, Secular Jew and this book on Jewish superheroes.  Regardless of the reason, you know it's trendy when secular entities like Bed & Bath and Slate are tweeting hamentaschen recipes.

Eclectic hamentaschen photos swept Facebook and Pinterest this year

#Purim was also hot topic on Twitter this year, with tweets every minute from all over the world.

We wonder if all the people tweeting this photo for #Purim even know who Haman was

Exhibit Three:  Increasing number of friends with children + Quality education in Jewish preschools + waitlists in public schools everywhere = more Purim costumes than ever before.

'Nuff said on that one.

What we'll be stylin' on Purim this year.  

So, to sum up, like the torture we endure when Christmas tzotchkes get put out before Halloween has even ended, Purim seems to be going the way of overkill as well.  We have to wonder, at what point does the holiday start to lose its impact?  That would be truly a shame, because it really is a great holiday.

Mini once asked us why we don't celebrate birthdays every day.  It would make every day special!  Or would it......

Simple, amateur hamantaschen.  Just right.

Happy Purim, peeps.  But not too happy, if you know what we mean.

An Urban Dweller's Wish For Snow

What do New Yorkers wish for on a Snow Day?

While many suburban dwellers are hoping for no power outages and help with shoveling, here is what many New Yorkers are thinking when we hear of an impending snowstorm.

Behold, a typical New Yorker's wish for a perfect snow day:

Dear Mother Nature:

May it not snow on any day where we need to leave this island.  Or venture far in it.  

May it snow just hard enough for schools and offices to close, but not so hard that the delivery person can't make it here with dinner.   

May the really hard snow not start until after the liquor store closes.

May the snow stop by morning, so that the baristas can make it into work.

May it stay cold enough for us to enjoy a beautiful day sledding in the park, but not so cold that we freeze our butts off.  

May the supermarket not run out of mini marshmallows.

May people finally stop the meshuggas of naming snowstorms and put us out of our misery.

And finally, the ubiquitous wish of urban dwellers:

May we experience the joy of jumping in a fresh, white, fluffy pile of snow before it turns yellow.

W.E.S.

Don't hate us! It's just a W.E.S.

There is an expression some peeps we know invented called "W.E.S." which is short for "Weakened Emotional State".  Quite a clever acronym actually, as no self-respecting male (or female, for that matter) wants to admit they've been rendered into a blubbering fool, obsessing over what's eating at them, dragging themselves through their days and spending whole nights on the bathroom floor.

So in the case of these particular peeps it allowed some guys to let each other know they needed a little extra attention in a way that wasn't emasculating.

Picture a typical scenario where Thing 1 might be trying to get the last beer, but Thing 2 saw him coming and beat him to it.

"Nice try dude, next time be faster"

Thing 1 sits down with a heavy expression and stares ahead at nothing.

"Dude. W.E.S."

Thing 2 quietly hands over the beer.

"Oh yeah, I forgot.  Say no more"

This scenario works quite nicely in many other settings too.  Substitute the beer for the last piece of cake, or the bigger half of the burger, the hot Swedish girl you just picked up in a bar....you see where this is going.

But most importantly, it reminds friends not to forget you.

"Let's call J-dog to join, he's in a W.E.S."

That said, we can imagine its implications beyond your immediate circle of friends....

"I'm so sorry I ripped off all your eyebrows.  I'm in a W.E.S., see....."

or

"Turtle abuse!? I would never abuse a reptile!  It's just a W.E.S...."

or

"Where are my pants!? Oh my goodness, W.E.S. has caused me to fall victim to wearing tights as pants...!"

It could even go so far as being an official police cause of crime.

"Yeah, I got a big car accident here.  Nope, no foul play here, just a bad case of W.E.S."

Yes this could be huge.  W.E.S. is a veritable trump card, a sort of "get out of jail free" card for friends to get a pass on being teased for a while.

Too bad our children haven't discovered it, as it sure would help decipher those times when you're not sure if they're just misbehaving/oppositional/defiant or if something really upset them.  Wouldn't it be nice if instead of wondering if you should or shouldn't be punishing them, they could just honestly tell you "It's not me, momma.  I'm in a W.E.S."

It's only a matter of time, peeps.  W.E.S.  You heard it here first.

Conversations with 7 year-olds

While it's commonly known that your "coolness" goes way down in your child's eyes the older they get, there apparently seems to be an inverse relationship between age of your child and amount of knowledge you have as well. The older mini gets, the less we seem to know.

Observe just one conversation on one walk home.  Mother and child pass a Chanukah menorah in the window of a bank.  It's New Years' Eve.

"Momma, they didn't take it down!"

"Well, honey, some people leave decorations for different holidays up until after January first".

"Then how come our building took down our menorah after Chanukah and the Christmas tree is still there?"

"Well, some people do that too"

"So, sometimes people keep the menorah up and sometimes they take it down after Chanukah?"

"Yes"

"But everyone keeps their Christmas tree until after January 1?"

"Pretty much, yes"

"So, if everyone keeps their Christmas tree up in their store after Christmas is over, how come not everyone keeps their menorahs up until after Chanukah?"

"That's a good question, kiddo.  I don't know".

She clearly does not like this answer.  She pauses to think, and a moment later her relaxed face lets on that she has moved on to other thoughts.  She begins jumping over seams in the sidewalk, noting that "the lines are fire".

She focuses on her game, clearly forgetting the serious thoughts she had earlier.

A few moments later.....

"Momma, how long will the earth stay?"

Damn.  The Christmas tree question was easier.