Hanukkah visit from Grampa Shalom

In preparation for Hanukkah, Gabrielle and I made a donut-custard cake I have made in the past. It's simple: rip up a dozen donuts and then pour an egg and cream mixture over it, let it soak, then bake. Gabrielle is actually a real talent in the kitchen - she is the most consistent egg breaker I've ever known. She almost never gets any shell in, even though the process she uses is, um, unorthodox. She gently oh so gently taps the egg about a million times and then when she moans that it won't open, she kind of crushes it in her hands and *voila* out pops a perfect egg.



Isaac loves his gift: a box of brightly-coloured waxy sticks!



No Isaac - those are Hanukkah candles! Here, have this cool little sportscar instead...



So cool. And Gabrielle just loved her little monkey puppet theatre. Seriously well done on the gifts papa! (with just a weeeee bit of help from Marie, who was unfortunately too sick to travel).



She also loved everything else about Hanukkah, especially the potato latkes, which she globbed with sour cream and wasn't at all picky about. Nothing makes a jewish mama feel better than having her little girl utter those magic words: "more latke please."



She loved all the candles, needless to say. We spent alot of time convincing her that they were not to be blown out, and then she chastised my dad when he blew out the last millimeter of burning candle as he was trying to leave. A 3-year old never misses a beat.