Resident Jew

Team DeMotte is a Christian family with ties to about every possible denomination. Laura (mom) grew up Catholic, the paternal grandparents are a Presbyterian minister and a Methodist organist. Despite these bonafides, we have a very cute resident Jew.

I could just squeeze that little punam!

It began when we moved our youngest daughter Macey to the Jewish Community Alliance for pre-school. The facilities are awesome, the hours are long and better still, they never close during traditional school breaks. Best of all, Macey loves the JCA and in fact refers to it as the "Macey-A."

But for a non-Jewish family, it leaves us scratching our heads pretty much every time she opens her mouth. For starters, there is the vocabulary. For those of you who don't own one, four year-olds are not good at annunciation. Pretty much every sentence has a mystery word. So mix into that puzzle some Hebrew words and the fun is just beginning. Every Shabbat, (Friday I think) Macey demands that we give her "ted-ak-ka". Having absolutely no idea what she means, I spent a little time with Google and discovered that a "Tzedakah" is a charitable gift. Seemed as good a guess as any so I threw a little cash her way and that seemed to satisfy her. My personal favorite is the Sukkot tent. Each year a tent appears in the courtyard and Macey starts excitedly shouting "SUCK IT".  This can't possibly the correct pronunciation so I predictably cringe. However screaming this pseudo vulgarity at an ear-splitting volume seems to be acceptable "Feast of Booths" behavior. What is not acceptable though, is to teach your child to refer to Challah (hall-ah) bread as "hollaback bread" (my bad).

We have also learned lots of new songs; many about plagues and other such fun. We have learned a slightly bizarre Jewish trash-talking rhyme,
"I'm going to Shabbat, you're not!" which we are treated to every Friday morning.

Merry Chanukah!

But tonight was an especially interesting night as it was time to light the huge honkin' Menorah at school. Sadly, this occurred precisely when Macey's mother was trying to hurry home. Once lit, was it time to head home? Nope- time to eat latkes. Robbing Macey of her latke dinner was a full blown crisis and was only resolved with a firm promise that we would make them at home.

Jewish saturated fat.

God bless my wife for whipping these bad boys up. As we sat down for our dinner, Macey asked if she could say the blessings which is now a bigger deal given that the kids are fully into Advent (you know, the season that began Sunday when Macey lit the first Advent candle in church). She got the praying job and we held hands and bowed our heads.

"Heavenly Father, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made you out of clay, and when you're dry and ready, I'll play with you all day. Amen."