All the holiday cheer, none of the tsouris

Samson and Jane attended their very first Hanukkah party Saturday night. We had gotten our tree that morning and started decorating around the house, so we gave Samson plenty of prep about what to expect at his buddy Ethan's house. Which boiled down to: Yes to latkes, no to nativity sets.

Jane had a great time: There wasn't a hint of Santa anywhere.

Sam proved surprisingly disinterested in playing the dreidl game. There was a train table and an electric guitar and lots of running around to do. Also, and I realized this later, he had no idea that the gelt had chocolate inside.

He discovered this as I was putting him into his car seat for the trip home and, of course, demanded his due.

In what could be the biggest lie I've ever told on the fifth day of Hanukkah, I told him that he had to be seated and buckled in before he could have any gelt. When I got the inevitable "why?" I coolly told him that it was a special Hanukkah rule.

Laugh if you want, but it worked.