Chanukah is over!

At least for this year it's over!
Now I have the post Chanukah cleaning. Sometimes it takes me almost until Purim to get the chanukiyot off of the window sill, but I think I may be better this year, since otherwise it will confuse the grandchildren.

and I'm almost finished with the post-Chanukah Havel Havelim I've been working on. G-d willing, next morning I'll add whatever else comes in over night, and then I'll set it up on the blogs.

So far it seems like I'll really be striking tomorrow. That's good, since I have things to do in Jerusalem, especially since I want to use my free Wednesday to greet the 10,000th oleh via Nefesh B'Nefesh.

Rather mundane this all sounds, did you say "mundane?"

Well, I guess I forgot to tell you about the latest Carnival of the Mundane.

and here are a few other things:
Amber, Baleboosteh's daughter has, B"H, gotten through surgery ok.

Marallyn has posted a great poem which I'll post, too:

MEMORIES

A little house with three bedrooms
And one car on the street,
A mower that you had to push
To make the grass look neat.

In the kitchen on the wall
We only had one phone,
And no need for recording things,
Someone was always home.

We only had a living room
Where we would congregate,
Unless it was at mealtime
Then in the kitchen we ate.

We had no need for family rooms
Or extra rooms to dine,
When meeting as a family
Those two rooms worked out fine.

We only had one TV set,
And channels maybe two,
But always there was something
On that was surely worth the view.

For snacks we had potato chips
That tasted like a chip,
And if you wanted flavor
There was Lipton's onion dip.

Store-bought snacks were rare
Because my mother liked to cook,
And nothing can compare to
Snacks from mama's cookbook.

Weekends were for family trips
Or staying home to play,
We all did things together --
Even go to church/synagogue to pray.

When we did our weekend trips
Depending on the weather,
No one stayed at home
Because we liked to be together.

Sometimes we would separate
To do things on our own,
But we knew where the others were
Without our own cell phone.

Then there were the movies
With your favorite movie star,
And nothing can compare to
Watching movies in your car.

Then there were the picnics at
The peak of summer season,
Pack a lunch and find some trees
And never need a reason.

Get a baseball game together
With all the friends you know,
Have real action playing ball --
And no game video.

Remember when the doctor
Used to be the family friend,
And we never needed
anAccident Lawyer to defend!

The way that he took care of you
No matter what he had to do,
Because he took an oath and
Strived to do the best for you.(and sometimes that meant coming to your home)

Remember going to the store
And shopping casually,
And when you went to pay for it
You used REAL money?

Nothing that you had to swipe
Or punch in the amount,
Remember when the cashier person
Had to really count?

The milkman used to go
From door to door,
And it was just a few cents more
Than going to the store.

There was a time when mailed
Letters came right to your door,
Without a lot of junk mail ads
Sent out by every store.

The mailman knew each house by name
And knew to whom it was sent;
There were not loads of mail
Addressed to "present occupant."

There was a time when just one glance
Was all that it would take,
And you would know the kind of car,
The model and the make.

They didn't look like turtles
Trying to squeeze out everymile;
They were streamlined, white-walled,
With fins and had some style.T

he music that you played loud
Made you want to jive,
It was on a vinyl,
large-holed recordCalled a forty-five.

The record player had a middle
Post to keep them all in line,
The records would drop down
And play one at a time.

Oh sure, we had our problems then,
Just like we do today,
And always we were striving,
Trying for a better way.

But, the simple life we lived
Still seems like so much fun,
How can you explain a game,
Called 'kick the can and run'?

And boys put baseball cards for
The noise between bicycle spokes,
What about those nickel red machines
That dispensed little bottled Cokes?

This life seemed so much easier
And slower in some ways,
I love the new technology
But I sure do miss those days.

So time moves on and so do we,
And nothing stays the same,
But I sure love to reminisce
And walk down memory lane.