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

Again – I am writing this (a post about what we received and gifted and what we did each night for Chanukah – as a family) more for me than for you (I’m thinking I’ll get a kick out of it in three or four years – when our life has recovered!), but hey if you want to read it… that’s up to you!

To see how the first night of Chanukah went, click here. 😉

So – for the Rubin family Channukah in 2019 ….  
….on the second night, the following gifts were given and received…. [explanations for the presents – even things you don’t possibly think could need an explanation! are below the list! ;-)]

Avi’s present on the second night:

• THREE PAIR of underwear! Cotton boxer-briefs (there’s a story with this!)

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My present on the second night:

• I took the family to Zoo Lights!
• I bought the family popcorn at the zoo!
• Hair rubber bands – from my friend… (there’s a story…)

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A.J.’s presents on the second night:

• THREE PAIR of underwear! Cotton boxer-briefs.*
• A t-shirt.*
• A hoodie.*

Dad’s present on the second night:

• Four organic chocolate bars from Natural Grocers.
• A t-shirt.*
• A dog toy [and we don’t have a dog]….. (there’s a story with this…)

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Charlie’s present on the second night:

• THREE PAIR of underwear! Cotton boxer-briefs.*
• One organic salted milk chocolate bar from Natural Grocers.
• $20 in pennies to go through to look for old coins (from A.J.) Photo below is of the boys sorting pennies!

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So here’s the story about the underwear (and the other clothes):

Since my credit has been destroyed, as a result of the attacks on my advocacy work over the past 4 years, I only have one stupid credit card for regular purchases ($500 limit) and one store-brand credit card to my name these days.

The store-brand credit card is for Lucky Brand stores. I have this card because I have a funny body; my hips and my waist and the rest of me always seems to be the same number of inches around (I’m either something like 36 x 36 x 36 or 38 x 38 x 38 – whereas other women might be 36 x 30 x 34, or whatever!) so for the past 31 years I have been wearing men’s jeans [they are so much more comfortable on me than lady’s jeans!] – and always Lucky brand (since I *borrowed* a pair from a boy I dated in Paris back in 1990…Spencer…and found them to be so incredibly comfortable!)

I love Lucky’s stuff! I have just a tiny credit line (just $250), and I try to only use it on stuff that’s on special sales – but it buys me two or three (or more) months to pay for clothes when we absolutely need them. On top of that, we have lucked out, in that after YEARS of dealing with severe Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) issues with my boys – a symptom of them being Lead-poisoned as babies/ toddlers – when it comes to things like underwear and socks, ALL OF MY BOYS have decided the the Lucky-brand stretchy cotton boxer-style briefs are their favorite underwear — and now 3 of the 4 of them also wear the same size, which really makes things easy! [Until you have a child with severe SPD you don’t know what a huge relief it is to find something they will wear without constant complaints and outrageous tantrums!]

So anyway, a couple of weeks ago I randomly remembered that I had paid the Lucky card off a month or two ago, and that I might now have some available credit… This realization coincided with Lucky having a 60% off sale (including 60% off of already discounted close out items!), and the boys all needing underwear.

When you do the math … underwear that is usually $32.50 for 3 pair… is on sale for $23.50 and then you get 60% off so that brings it to just about $4.70 a pair!! Which means is that they are practically giving stuff away for free – right? [Especially since it is magical unicorn-level underwear (that my SPD kids will wear)!] Since the boys needed underwear and a few other things anyway, I ordered everyone clothes (maxing out the credit line to make sure to get the biggest discount and free shipping, too!) And then several days later I was talking to A.J. and told him I had ordered underwear for everyone but that I didn’t have any “real” Channukah presents for anyone – and then I had an epiphany: the kids are all getting underwear for Chanukah this year! (Forget about the old tradition of a new pair of socks every day; I am throwing that out the window this year! – lol!) And so… the underwear (and a few t-shirts — and a hoodie!)

When I gave my husband the shirt (as we stood huddled in our 59-degree F living room) he was like “uh..but this is…a summer shirt!” and I was like “why do you think it was on sale?!” 😉

So here’s the story about Zoo Lights:

Every year, the Oregon Zoo [which is near downtown Portland – and has it’s own really-cool underground MAX municipal rail station (and is also just a 15-minute drive from our home, when we happen to have a rental car!)] has lights up for the holidays – all.over.the.entire.zoo.! We went a few years ago when the kids were younger, but my husband had never gone. The picture below is my four boys together at Zoo Lights in 2016 (when Avi was 11, A.J. was 14, Charlie was 8 and Colescott was 20).

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We hadn’t gone to Zoo Lights since the above picture was taken because, frankly – with the level of poverty inflicted by the legal attacks – we haven’t been able to afford a Zoo membership in recent years. I posted the other day on Facebook that if anyone wanted to buy my kids a really generous gift this holiday season, we would really like a membership to the Zoo. [Before my mom passed away in 2016 that was usually her big present to the boys each year for the holidays – a membership at OMSI [the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry], or a membership at the Oregon Zoo!] 

In response to my Facebook post, my friend Katie then bought a shared membership (we’ve done this before — shared a museum membership between our two families – with just the two mamas listed as members), and gave my half to me as a gift! Thank you so much, Katie; I owe you one! 🙂 Katie’s gift made it possible for us to go to Zoo Lights Monday night — AND will make it possible for my kids to the visit to the Zoo throughout the next year, until the end of 2020 – which is an amazing gift! [We usually go to the Portland Zoo at least 5 or 6 times a year when we have a membership, since it is a great day’s outing for the kids, — and so close to our home! Photo below (and at the top of the post) are from Zoo Lights this year!

Advice to all grandparents:

If you don’t already have a holiday tradition of purchasing a zoo or science museum membership for your grand kids each year, please consider doing so! It’s such an amazing gift, in that it gives your children something to do with the grandkids when you are not around — when they might otherwise not have resources for an outing… when it is a rainy day (for a museum), or a sunny day (for the zoo), and they need something new to do. Museum outings provide education, entertainment, and exercise – which is a great trio of benefits! Also, for kids with Special Needs (like my kids), having a routine/tradition of going to the same place every year (several times a year) helps them get over their anxiety of going out in public / being with crowds. The familiarity of the location helps to balance out the “chaos” of being in public, and is a great teaching tool (especially for kids needing this sort of thing as occupational therapy to address their special needs).

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So here’s the story about hair rubber bands:

I actually used the gift certificate my friend gave me for my birthday (mentioned in yesterday’s Chanukah post) to get something for myself, too… lol — hair rubber bands! Having this crazy-long hair is driving me batty, so having hair rubber bands that are big enough that I can actually find them will simplify my life quite a bit. Plus, they are all the same, so my braids will be matchy-matchy! I am very excited to have 12 new Scünchis – woohoo!

So here’s the story about chocolate bars:

Earlier in the day (before the evening of the second night of Chanukah), I managed to earn a few bucks ($50 actually!) to buy groceries (yay! groceries!!!) We don’t usually shop at Natural Grocers [I sure wish we did — but it is kind of far from our house, given we are normally car-free], but it is right near where A.J. was having a trumpet lesson, and I wanted to get the boys out of the house for a little bit. [We have been spending WAY too much time in the house during these cold short winter days!] So we dropped A.J. off at his trumpet lesson and walked from there to Natural Grocers…and I told the kids they had to pick “ONE really good thing out for dad“… We rarely buy chocolate bars (because – Lead!)…and we stumbled on Natural Grocers-brand organic chocolate bars – which we hadn’t seen before, and hadn’t tried yet, and we decided that would make the best present for dad… so we got one of each flavor! [One for Charlie — and four for Dad!] 

So here’s the story about the dog toy:

While at the grocery store (above), I came across “natural” dog toys — that my readers have been asking me to test… so I decided to pick one of those up, too! I gave it to my husband as a “present”, with the receipt —saying that “after I test it and report on it, you can return it and use the money (about $8.00!) to buy whatever you want at the grocery store!” This is now becoming a comedic theme of Channukah this year – giving Len things to return for his choice of “presents” at the grocery store!

… and then… here’s what we did to celebrate the holiday…

We lit the candles and exchanged presents [A.J. wasn’t there because he was out busking – playing Christmas carols on his trumpet on the corner with a friend — they’ve been getting together and doing that every year for the past six years, now for fun – and gratuities… that night they actually made $98.00 between the two of them!] Carissa came over for a visit, and then Len’s present to me for the night ended up being that Len waited on us while we visited — he made and served us coffee and latkes, and made sure we were happy! [Yes, Carissa and I both had full-caffeine coffee at 7:00 p.m. at night! LOL!]

Then Carissa left and at about 8:15 the whole family (minus Colescott, who is away at college) drove to Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo (with the trip there being a teenage driving lesson!) We checked out the amazing elaborate and artistic show of lights throughout the zoo, and ate popcorn, and hung out and had a great time on a cold, dark night at the wondrously/magically-festive Zoo until about 9:30. As we were leaving the Zoo, somehow A.J. and Avi bonked heads and there was a LOT of BLOOD, and SCREAMING, and a MANGLED LIP (but not mangled enough to warrant a trip to the E.R., on this particular night!)

We then came home and watched “T.V.” (Netflix/Amazon on our old computer — we haven’t owned a TV for… forever) until we dropped! But I have to share with you what we are watching these days…. OMG the kids are loving it, and we are all cracking up constantly during these shows – all five of us – they are absolutely terrific and introduce your kids to a little bit of “history in the flesh”: “What’s My Line” — from the late 1950s through the early 1960s! Guests have included Eleanor Roosevelt; Louis Armstrong; Walt Disney; Frank Sinatra; Jerry Lewis; Ella Fitzgerald; JFK’s Russian translator, the guy who did Donald Duck’s voice; the guy who does the scoreboard for the NY baseball teams; a young kid – who sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera!; a guy who made “those new outdoor phone booths they’re installing all over New York City now!” lol – just some really amazing and unexpectedly educational stuff for our children’s generation! [You might want to consider watching a few episodes with your kiddos! I personally really love seeing the fashions of the day on the participants in the show!]

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

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

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