On the third night of Channukah 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 Channukah – 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 all thee nights of Channukah went, start with this link. 😉

So – for the Rubin family Channukah in 2019 ….  
….on the third night the following gifts were given and received…. I’m keeping this post simple! May expound on things later….

Avi’s present on the third night:

• THREE PAIR of underwear! Yes again! [Channukah underwear haul total so far for Avi = 6 pair!]

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

Avi made CHALLAH for the first time ever! It was amazing! Yum! [This is an especially incredible feat, because we don’t even have a normal (working) oven! So it was a little burnt in some spots – but it was SOOO Delicious!

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My presents on the third night:

Len gave me a pair of earrings that he made out of bicycle parts from the shop! They are so cool; I love them! He made them out of a string of anodized aluminum spoke nipples on stainless steel wires – they actually look like fancy custom made earrings from a jeweler! Picture of earrings below (Avi took this photo of me  – on the 4th night of Channukah – and doesn’t like it – but it is good photo of the earrings!)

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AND…my READERS made it so my BLOG reached 250,000 unique views so far this month (12/24) — this was an amazing gift! Thank you to all of you for that!

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A.J.’s presents on the third night:

• THREE PAIR of underwear! (Ditto from Avi’s present, total Channukah underpants count = 6 pair!)

Dad’s present on the third night:

• A rechargeable, fuel-free [miniature electric arc] lighter! (there’s a story with this…)

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Charlie’s presents on the third night:

• $20 in nickels – to go through to look for old coins (from A.J.). Again – he was VERY excited about this activity! These types of projects are a regular thing in the Rubin house, but we usually do this with pennies, not nickels – so the opportunity to rummage for nickels looking for very old coins was extra exciting.
• A toy car from me (which he refused actually. lol – and said he “did not need !”, and we decided we would give to Carissa’s boys instead!)

So here’s the very short story about the lighter:

I actually used the $25 gift certificate my friend gave me for my birthday (mentioned in yesterday’s Channukah post, and the post from the day before) to get something for my husband this night… (I really stretched this $25!) My husband had talked about this lighter (and apparently wanted to get one for years), and it seems like a wonderful choice from an environmental perspective. It is a waterproof electric lighter that is recharged by USB and NEVER needs any kind of fuel (other than electrons ;-))! It’s a great choice for a “long emergency” plan IF you have some sort of source of electric power to be able to charge it (and other things) up… like solar panels. He’s really excited about this new present and has been playing with it (kind of as a grown up fidget, lol!) since he got it. Here’s the link to the lighter on Amazon in case you are curious (I will also be doing a blog post about it shortly): https://amzn.to/2t2yURc

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

We lit the candles and exchanged presents… and I worked (the usual!) 🙂 The kids played with their nickels for hours. A.J. busked on the corner with his friend again (2nd night in row – Christmas Eve after all!) for a couple of hours. Dad periodically flicked his wondrous lighter’s tiny electric arc on and was lost in reverie. Why am I sharing these mundane celebrations with you? Just to keep it real. There’s probably someone out there who is appreciating these posts! Lol.

Take-aways? Life-lessons perhaps?

• Not every holiday is full of consumerism.
• Spending time together is the most important thing.
• Making presents for each other is super fun too!

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

Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama

*Amazon links are affiliate links. If you purchase something after clicking on one of my links I may receive a small percentage of what you spend at no extra cost to you.