Happy New Year

The past couple of days we have been celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This was the first in a string of Jewish holidays that Sam gets off of school: 7 days in four weeks. This is a bit of a stress to manage with 2 full-time-job parents, but a good time of year to remember family traditions, start new ones, and reflect on the past and coming year. Ari began work about a year ago at the new paper and I have since started my work for the hospital. Sam stayed at the same school this year, but they moved to a new location last year and he's now moved up into the pre-K classroom. In June, we bought and moved into a new house in a new neighborhood. To celebrate the new year that has been one of transitions, we spent some time preparing some family favorite traditional recipes: tzimmes, coleslaw, and kasha varnishkes. Ari followed Harriet's instructions to make "Grandma's Meat" and Sam and I made a newer family favorite from 1,000 Jewish Recipes: Rugelach. Rugelach is a delicious stuffed cookie dough cookie and we prepared 2 versions, one with chocolate and pecans and the other with cinnamon, sugar, and walnuts--which Sam referred to as "the plain kind."

Everything was delicious. The first night we were on our own, and the second night we were joined by our cousins and switched things up just a bit for a vegan version. Thankfully Sam and Ari managed to scarf down all the meat within a day! That first night, Sam professed, "my meat is the yummiest thing on my dinner plate" even though he was a bit confused by our departure from vegetarianism and kept calling it tofu. He did seem to equally enjoy the veggie nut loaf on Tuesday night. And challah and apples tied in the "yummiest thing to dip in honey taste test contest vote." (By the by, that is only grape juice in Sam's wine glass above.)

All-in-all we had a nice holiday and Sam really enjoyed helping make all the special dishes and cookies. Here he is in his "helper costume" complete with footed Spider Man pajamas and fire chief boots.
...and his "helper apron."

Happy New Year!