On the first night of Channukah my true love gave to me… [2019 Rubin family report]

So – I am writing this more for me than for you, but hey if you want to read it… that’s up to you!

As most of my readers know – we have been living in fairly severe poverty since the attacks on my childhood Lead-poisoning prevention advocacy went in to full force in the first half of 2016.  [You can read about our current lawsuit suing the State of Oregon for multiple counts of Civil Rights violations in Federal court here.]

In spite of this, we know that are incredibly fortunate — to have had a roof over our heads all of this time – and especially that it has been the same roof for nearly 13 years, now! But truth be told, that is only due to some very creative conversations with the bank over the years (as well as some incredibly generous loans from friends (and some complete strangers, actually!) at critical times that made it possible to keep our home!

With all that we have been through in recent years, the holidays are always difficult (all holidays) because of finances, but we manage to get super-creative. For example…for my 50th birthday, instead of traveling somewhere exotic or having a party, my son came home to visit from college and he spent the day playing with his brothers while I spent the day working ;-)! I was super-happy to have my kiddo home for my birthday — as well as the opportunities his visit afforded me to work for several contiguous hours without constant interruptions on several occasions, while he played with his little brothers or took them away from the house on local adventures! [And was only a wee bit massively depressed to not have a big bash for my 50th like I had wanted to do!]

So – for the Rubin family Channukah in 2019 ….  

….on the first night the following gifts were given and received….

Avi’s present on the first night:

For my birthday, a friend of mine gave me a $25 Amazon gift certificate; I used this to buy some Channukah presents for the family!! On the first night, a package arrived (a padded envelope from Amazon) and I said to Charlie (age 11)  and A.J (age 17)…. “That’s Avi’s present for tonight!” They opened it up and looked and both said, “oh, that’s the most horrible present ever — what an awful present!” And then we gave it to Avi — and he was SOOOO EXCITED, and SOOOO THANKFUL!  #ContextIsEverything!

I had bought him a pack of 150 sword-style flossers (for about $3.69 I think). He has been asking for them for a month or more and – with his intense OCD (as a result of being Lead-poisoned as a baby), he really depends on them for flossing his teeth — as other methods “don’t meet his strict [OCD-fueled] standards”. So even though it was a bizarre and dreadful “present” from most people’s perspectives, he was THRILLED!  And yes, I know these things are bad for the environment [disposable plastic, etc!] – but it’s one of the things I compromise on for him to accommodate his disabilities!

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Avi’s present to the family on the first night:

On the first night of Channukah, Avi baked everyone organic, vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free tiny raspberry tarts — packaged in adorable handmade origami boxes that he also designed and made!! Yum! and WOW! I already know this kid is going to be a great chef when he grows up — a chef, and an artist, and a photographer! He is currently in the kitchen trying to figure out how to make organic, sugar-free challah from scratch! [Note: Avi is always collecting origami paper at every opportunity, so he has quite a stash of different sizes and patterns at this point!]

Continue reading below the images of the boxes made by Avi…

My presents on the first night:

• Charlie painted (mixed-media, actually) a picture of fall leaves at school (image below). It is a painting with outlines done in raised lines of school glue, and then the colors painted in water color. He didn’t finish it, but gave it to me as my first night gift anyway (making sure that I understood it was not yet finished!)
• Plus, I got a tart from Avi. I am very honest with my kids, and told Avi that, while I loved the idea, I really hate the taste of…coconut! The tarts were made with coconut flour, coconut sugar and coconut oil… ummm… yum? (I have to coach him in the direction of making things I like – lol!) Luckily everyone else in the family loved them!

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My requested present from my eldest on the first night:

Sometimes moms have to ask for what they want for the holidays… On the first night of Channukah, we had a video chat with my eldest son (Colescott) and his girlfriend (it was also her birthday), and the rest of the family. I requested that for each night of Channukah, the present I would like from Colescott is that I would like him to go to my blog and read the top 12 posts on the blog that night, so that he could get to better know my work (because he’s at the age where he’s going to start buying dishes and things – and it is about time he catch up on my extensive body of work testing and publishing the results of which of these things test positive for high levels of toxicants!) He said that, since he is on winter break from college, he “has all the time in the world”, and he could definitely agree to that! Yay! #MomWin!

A.J.’s presents on the first night:

• A tart in an origami box from Avi.
• A drawing from Charlie (a card with a dreidel on it!)
• A wooden take-apart toy car from mom (something a company had sent me to test! ;-)]
• A 1928 copy of “Popular Mechanics” magazine from big brother Colescott. Unfortunately the Lead levels on this thing are in the 700 to 1000 ppm range so A.J. will be keeping that in a plastic bag and only handling it with disposable gloves when he wants to look at it! [Colescott doesn’t read my blog apparently and did not realize this gift would be high-Lead, which is what prompted the above mentioned Channukah present that I requested … from Colescott to me!]

Dad’s presents on the first night:

• Time & help in the shop (from A.J.) fixing some tools and building something for work.
• A drawing from Charlie.
• A tart in an origami box from Avi.
• I gave Len a mug to return at the grocery store (something I had tested for the blog) — so he could use the money to buy cat food! [Because he had repeatedly voiced concern about the cats in the morning, wanting to make sure the cats were fed!] Lol! This was his present from me that night: I told him he could get cat food AND a loaf of bread with the money from exchanging the mug! 😉

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Charlie’s presents on the first night:

• $5 in pennies from big brother A.J. The kids like to go through rolls of pennies they get from the bank, so that they can look for/find older pennies for their collection – and then they return the pennies they don’t want to keep and get new rolls to go through. This keeps them busy for HOURS, and is a practically free activity since they always return the coins.
• A tart in an origami box from Avi.
• A one-month membership to Starz on Amazon Prime so, as a family, we could watch the original 1967 Dr. Dolittle movie (with Rex Harrison) [$8.99/1 month]

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We lit the Chanukah candles – using the menorah that Avi made 10 years ago (picture above), in pre-school (made of metal nuts, small tiles and tissue paper – all glued to what I assume is a piece of wood!), and then called it good! 

Stay tuned for my reports on the second, third and fourth nights of channukah (and so on!)

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

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