This could be a bad sign

Daniel came home from Sunday school last Sunday very happy to be making a little Christmas card of the holy family. His was for Grandpa and Grandma. It took him forever to write 'Grandpa Glen' and 'Grandma Dorothy.' Then, I asked him who Mary and Joseph were. He dropped his head into his hand in exasperation.

"Mom! We have been over this already. I don't know! I think they took care of Jesus once."

So, daycare can teach about Hanukkah, and he soaks it up. Sunday School teaches about the Holy Family, and he completely misses it.

Later in the week I was creating a holiday party game for the IIBA meeting. You stuff a stocking with different holiday items and seal the stocking. Then, people feel through the stocking and guess the contents. I wanted to add a dreidel and gelt, and actually found a Judaica shop which was on my way home from work. Let me correct that, Nathan located it. And (hopefully jokingly) said, "pick up a menorah for Daniel." Now, I foster creativity and curiousity, but I don't know if I could start lighting a menorah. I did find a cute little menorah wooden puzzle though, so I figured it would be cute and he could take it to school. I also gave him a dreidel of his very own. His eyes lit up like you wouldn't believe.

Next thing you know, when asked what he wants to be when he grows, his response will be "a rabbi."

Never thought I'd hear...

Last night, as I started to clean off the fireplace mantle to begin our holiday decorating, Daniel approached me with eyes wide, hands clasped in anticipation.
"Mommy, do we have a menorah?"
"No, honey, we don't."
Disappointed (and a bit urgently) "We need to go get one right away, tonight is the first night of Hanukkah."
"Oh really?"
(more urgently, a bit distressed) "Maybe we can find some candles. We need eight, plus the shamash. It's the candle in the middle we use to light all of the other candles."
What made this so funny to me - 1) we're not Jewish. 2) I was cleaning off the mantle because that's where I put the nativity every year. 3) The kid never pays attention to anything in school - and it's the Hanukkah lesson that sticks. Seriously?
At dinner, he continued to tell us about the candles and the menorah, and his excitement to play dreidel at school today.

Sure enough, all he could talk about this morning was playing dreidel and winning chocolate coins. It's the most competitive I've ever seen him. At dinner tonight, he was a little disappointed that he didn't win at dreidel, but he got chocolate coins anyway.