Sandler Family Hanukkah 2008

The Light-up Spinning Dreidel

Annual Merry Zoo Day

Mike Love at Saks Fifth Avenue

And Even More Love from Saks for Mike

Now here is a word I should use more often

Jeremiad

First Store to Receive Permanent Immunity: Trader Joe's

How did Trader Joe's earn the first ever Immunity Award I've ever given out to a business?
Like this:
I went to Trader Joe's. I did an entire grocery shop. I got in line. I realized I didn't have my wallet. They let me take my groceries with just the promise I would bring my receipt back and pay later.
Long live the Trader! I promise I'll never cut-you-off (again)!

More things overheard at Kelly's Nursery School

Mom (looking at pretty, glittery menorah pictures from the preschool class): Ooohhh, honey! These are so nice! Which one is yours?
Daughter: This one!
Mom: I love it! And pink, your favorite color!
Daughter (pointing to another picture, of a shiny Mogen David): And this one is mine too!
Mom: That's great! I love it! It will look great on our Christmas Tree!

A trip to the Larchmont post office

Last week I took your regular-ol trip to my local post office. I needed to mail a package. After getting postage for the package, I realized this being the holiday season and all, I should probably get some stamps. I'm not much of a holiday card sending kinda person, but I send a few. I asked for Hanukkah stamps. The postal employee cheerfully told me they were all out, "given Larchmont's sizable Jewish population as you know, I'm sure you're not surprised." Actually, I was completely surprised. First, at the thought of Larchmont having a sizable Jewish population - it was news to me. And second, that the Jewish population had managed to clean out the post office of all its Hanukkah stamps by mid-December. So I say "I can just take any stamps, as long as they're not Christmas." And he says "How about Kwanzaa?" "No," I say, "Just anything non-holiday - don't you usually have snowflakes or snowmen or something like that?" He says "No, I don't think so. We have all the holidays though. We even have Jihad stamps." I look at him blankly. "I know you won't want those. To be honest, their a tough sell. They came out right after 9-11. Bad timing. No one wanted to buy them. A few people did, I think they felt guilty. So they bought the Jihad stamps, but in general, they're not a good seller. Not like the Hanukkah stamps!"

At this point, I am kinda ready to leave without stamps, but being a small town post office with a small town feel, the lady at the teller next to me says, "Get the ones with the man carrying the heart. They're perfect." Given that I had very low stamp requirements, I was sure they would be perfect. The guy brings me green heart stamps. "Perfect," I say, delighted to be getting out of this suddenly too-long and too-religious post office outing, when my friendly neighbor looks over and barks "Not the green ones! It has to be the red ones!" Without consulting me, the teller then goes frantically from bay to bay looking for the red ones. At the last bay, he grabs a strip, and shouts to me "It's the last ones! You got here just in time!"

Molly's Birthday Weekend

Molly's birthday was last Wednesday, but the celebrations continued through this weekend with a family party on Saturday at our house and a party with her class friends on Sunday at the Children's Creative Corner in Larchmont.

Here's her birthday cake from Saturday, a joint effort of her Uncle Ethan and me:

And here is the cake from her party on Sunday with her school friends, make by Erica of Erica's Edibles:

Erica also made great ice-skate cookies, I'll post soon.

Here's Molly and her Dad decorating her birthday reindeer:

It was great, it was fun, but now Monday the birthday festivities are over. Except, as Molly reminded me, "I still need to have a party with my friends from the City."

Big City Larchmont Mom has Hit the Big Time

I am very excited. Someone has linked to my blog and even wrote a post about BCM! I know seasoned bloggers wouldn't be acting like this is the biggest deal ever, but for my little blog and me, it is.

So thank you Lynda Larch for your post and your link.

We feel at home in Larchmont already.

Happy Birthday, Molly!

Molly's fifth birthday is today.

She celebrated with purple cupcakes...

Her Central School classmates...

And Grandma...

Scholastic: This Means War

I have been dreading the day Molly goes to a school Scholastic Book Fair ever since January, 2007 when I read this particularly depressing article from my oft-quoted Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood:

Last year, Caroline sent her seven-year-old son to his Scholastic school
book fair with five dollars and a note to his teacher that she wanted him to
pick a good reading book. Instead, he came home with a Batman drawing
book and three thirteen-inch flexible pencils.

I have been dreading the day, too, because I know when my daughter brings home her version of the tale above, I am going to insist that her public school no longer holds Scholastic Book Fairs. And then, all the trouble I've gone to to fit-in will evaporate. Scholastic themselves claim that 35-40% of the books sold at a typical book fair are linked to a movie, television show or video game. This is not what I want for my child.
Have educators really just given-up? Just told the corporations, OK you win - make the kids consuming clones who think a book needs to go with a movie or TV show, that this is what life is all about?
Well, today was the day. Book Fair Day. I gave her twenty bucks. I told myself, my kid loves books as much - if not more - than any other kindergarten kid. She will bring home a good book. A classic, or maybe a new book destined to be a classic. I can't wait to see what she gets!

But, alas, that fairytale was not meant to be.

She brought home these:

1. Dora's Perfect Pumpkin - what possible plot could this book even have? Have we not already exhausted the Halloween genre completely?
And wait, it gets worse:

2. Barbie the Island Princess Panorama Sticker Book - this is not even an actual book, it is a sticker panorama!

So I ask you, my loyal readers? Is it time? Should I start a rival school Book Fair company? Vote here!