My cousin Adam Sandler is right. It is so much fun-akkah to celebrate Hanukkah. It’s not like I grew up spinning the dreidel with him, but his wife is my brother-in-law’s first cousin. He grew up with her, but not spinning the dreidel because they are not Jewish. But Rob and his cousin both married Jews, one of which is my sister-in-law Alice and the other is Adam Sandler, who wrote and performed the greatest Hanukkah song ever. According to my sixth grade daughter, he’s family. Hanukkah after all, is all about family. And, according to my foodie friends, our holiday memories are specifically about spending time with family at the dining room table with family, friends and perhaps a celebrity or two if you are lucky.
Celebrating Hanukkah means spending time with my family and preparing a traditional Hanukkah meal. It is about carrying on the tradition of lighting a menorah, which for a kid means he gets to play with fire for a few sequential nights and watch the candles melt on the counter. For a parent it is the only time of the year I am allowed to sing off key and not embarrass my children. It involves an exchange of gifts, which has nothing to do with the actual meaning of Hanukkah, but has to do with the fact that the holiday of Christmas is right around the corner so gifts have become a part of the shtick....
