Ingredients:

½ bag Egg Noodles

½ cup Onion, chopped small

2 cloves garlic, minced (chopped very small)

1 Carrot, peeled and chopped small

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

½ cup Frozen Pees Or Soy Beans

1 Tbsp Butter

1 Tbsp Flour

1 cup Milk

1 can Solid White Tuna, drained and broken up with fork

½ cup Sour Cream

1 cup shredded Cheddar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9×9 casserole dish with Pam or other cooking spray.

Cook ½ bag egg noodles according to package directions.

Saute onion, garlic, and carrot in olive oil until carrots are soft.  Take out and set aside.

Steam pees or soy beans according to the package directions.

Melt butter in a frying pan.  Add flour and stir for a minute or two over med-low heat until mixture turns beige – don’t rush it.  Slowly add ½ cup milk and stir until well mixed.  Add another ½ cup and bring to low boil while continuing to mix.  When this mixture is thick, add a little salt & pepper, tuna, soy beans/pees and carrot mixture.  Turn the heat off and continue to mix well.

Fold in the noodles with a spatula and then add the sour cream and ½ cup of cheddar.  Spread out in prepared 9×9 dish and then sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

Bake at 350 for 20 min until cheese is melted and casserole has come together.

While he doesn’t officially turn three until the 19th, we had Gavin’s birthday celebration this past Sunday. Nothing too extravagant, just some friends over at the park and some treats back at the house. In fact, as I looked at last year’s album, it looks like a carbon copy (except everyone is a little bigger). Speaking of which, this year’s photos are all HERE.

This boy is really something else. He is a little conversationalist, mostly on subjects he learns to repeat from his big sister. He absolutely, positively has to do everything for himself, even if he lacks the understanding or skillset of the task at hand. He is an adventurer and a daredevil and has the bruises and lumps to prove it. Thankfully his wounds are always cured by a quick kiss from mom or dad. He excels at everything he does, including gymnastics and basketball. If that weren’t enough, he’s just the cutest little boy you have ever seen. I mean really! Even when he whines and complains (which is not a rare occurrence these days) he just looks so darn sweet while he’s doing it.

This is just one example of a Christmas experience that made me feel isolated, left out, and awkward. From cashiers asking what Santa was going to bring me, to public school teachers who were obviously put out by my mom’s requests for less religious activities.  Christmas time always made me feel like an outsider in my own community.

This may explain why I felt so overprotective this year as Faye approached her first “Holiday Season” in public school.  I wanted to protect her and keep her from developing such negative feelings about Christmas.  I also wanted to make sure the other adults in her life were sensitive to her in this time.

With my defenses up, I received an email from the school room mom about the upcoming “Holiday” party.  Although the email did not contain the word “Christmas”, it was filled with thoughts about the red and green cupcakes, ornament decorating, and other Christmas themed activities she had planned for the occasion.

Later that week, following my Chanukah explanation to her class, I gave Faye’s teacher a Chanukah movie to show during their daily quiet time.  He was very thankful and told me he would be happy to show it.

So the next day, when Faye broke into tears telling me her teacher showed The Grinch instead, I was livid.  He had already shown two days worth of Christmas programming, and Faye had been looking forward to sharing a Chanukah movie with her friends.

For me, these two events felt like music class all over again.  More adults overlooking the non-Christian kids and assuming every child wanted to celebrate Christmas.  I was determined to make both of them more sensitive to the needs of my daughter and kids like her.

Starting with the room mom, I sent an email explaining why Faye would not be comfortable participating in a Christmas party.  This went very well, and she was more than generous with her response.  She added a variety of cupcakes colors to the menu and agreed to include crafts other than ornament making to her list.

My next email was to Faye’s teacher.  I started by expressing my overall disappointment in the celebration of Christmas in school and tried to explain how hard this is on Jewish kids.  I’ll admit, he was getting a few years (read: decades) worth of pent up Christmas frustration, and the email was both long and angry.  Thankfully, I put that email aside for a few hours until I could discuss it with Jason.

This is when the issue really started to change for me.  Jason asked what I hoped to accomplish with my email.  Did I think the entire school was going to stop celebrating Christmas because it was hard on our child?  Were strangers going to stop wishing her a Merry Christmas at every turn?  How big of an impact could her teacher make?

Put that way, I realized I was putting a lot of pressure on this teacher to change a culture he had no control over.  With that in mind, I deleted my original email and simply asked him to consider showing the Chanukah movie before the end of the week.  He quickly replied that he would be happy to show our movie.

The experience that had the biggest impact on me was volunteering at the “Holiday” Party in Faye’s classroom. To my surprise, both the teacher and the other parents were genuinely committed to making the party comfortable for everyone. There were a variety of non-Christmas related crafts, and even a Chanukah bingo game.  When Faye came upon a table with a Christmas ornament craft, another mother simply suggested she make it as a gift for a friend.  Problem solved.

These experiences of Christmas in the public school over the past two weeks have really changed my perspective on the matter. For all of my worrying and defending, I found most of the people I spoke with to be accommodating. While I would prefer the public schools not be filled to the brim with Christmas, I no longer fear for the affect this will have on my children.

It is not my job to change how Christmas celebrations affect my children, but rather to instill in them a love for Judaism and for all of our holidays throughout the year.  With all of the Chanukah parties we have had/attended this year, I have no doubt they are feeling that love.

Enjoy this little masterpiece the kids and I put together using my snazzy new iPad app.

In case you missed it, our family dressed up as superheroes this year for Halloween. A big benefit of that is that the kids (and dad) get a superhero costume to wear whenever they feel like fighting crime. So it was during one of these crime-fighting sessions that I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with our superhero in hopes of exposing some of this top notch story telling I spoke of earlier. I’ll say it is not her best work, but you can still get an idea of the strange and bizarre things that this girl comes up with. Enjoy!

I wrote my first article about some of our past challenges around the high holidays as a military family in small Jewish communities. My second article is about my running adventures and how I find time for myself out there on the road.  I love being able to contribute to this magazine and also secretly love the idea of the possibility that Mayim Bialik might read my words.  She is, after all, on the staff of the magazine and a regular contributor.  The former Blossom actress is a religious Jewish mommy and currently co-staring on the show Big Bang Theory.  I am a big fan, both of her acting and her writing.

If you are not already reading Kveller, and are a Jewish parent, I highly recommend it.  One of my favorite Kveller moments was over Yom Kippur.  Looking through I saw an article on fasting from a mother of a small children.  Like me, she been pregnant or nursing for years and wasn’t planning on fasting this year.  On my first read, I agreed 100%.  But then I started to read the thoughtful comments and they really touched me.  Finally, Mayim Bialik wrote a related article on why she fasts even when she is nursing.  After all of this insightful conversation, I decided to fast and actually got a lot out of it.

I don’t know how often I will be writing, but I am excited to have this voice in the larger Jewish community.

Ingredients:

1 Pie Crust (Unbaked 9 Inch Pie Crust Chilled)

1 pkg Morning Star Crumbles

1 Onion (Finely Chopped)

1 Clove Garlic (Minced)

3 Tbsp Flour

1 tsp Salt

tsp Pepper

1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Grated)

1 cup Milk

2 Eggs

1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

Directions:

Brown veggie crumbles with onion and garlic.

Stir flour, salt and pepper and add to crumbles.

Spread mixture in pie shell.

Spread cheeses over this

Whisk milk, eggs and worcestershire sauce together and carefully pour enough over crumbles and cheddar to cover cheddar.  You don’t have to use all of it.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 35-40 minutes.

Running used to be a burdon, something to get over with and be done with.  But after training for my first marathon with The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer, I have come to really enjoy the meditative state I can get into while alone on the road.  With a new baby in the house, there is a danger of getting lost in the duties of being a mom.  I am the last to eat – if I get to eat at all – and always put my needs on the back burner for what the kids need.  I love being a mom, but I love really need some time to myself.

Even with Evelyn in the jogging stroller, I am usually able to tune out the world and tune into myself.  It is healing for my mommy soul.

Lately, as I have begun to increase my miles, I have gotten to the point of feeling very tired.  I get in a run in the last mile or two and start feeling as if I’m moving in slow motion.  My posture is crap and I feel down.  In these times, I have been focussing on some of my most inspiring moments.  Here are a few that make me stand up straight, renew my resolve, and pick up speed as I bring it home.

1. Sophomore year of high school, end of track season. I hadn’t met my coach’s goal of beating a 7 min mile. He told me I would have to continue to come to practice every day until I did it. Everyone was watching. Last lap, I am running as fast as I can. Coach tells some of the faster runners, guys and gals, to run with me to help me make the time. I see some of the most popular kids on either side of me, telling me I have this, I can do this. They wanted this as bad as I did. I come in at 6:59 and the whole team cheers for me. One of my best feelings to this day.

2. My first marathon.  I ran my own 26.2 on a 4.5 mile trail (many, many out and backs) with my husband and friends cheering me on.  They made a sign for me to break through at the end.  I thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it, but when I did, Jason was waiting with a bucket of water to douse me with.  Such a victory on so many levels.

3. Finishing the Marine Corps Marathon. The excitement in finishing such an amazing race is still so vivid in my mind.

4. Giving birth to Evelyn naturally.  When I am really in a rut, I remember what it felt like right before I pushed.  I was so done and felt like I had nothing left.  They cheered me on, I gave it my all, and there she was.  Just like that.  I seriously replay this in my mind when I need a lift.  It always makes me run faster and harder.  When I remember this moment, I feel invincible.