Thank you Mrs Hollinger! And belated Happy Hanukkah

The best art teacher ever.  Hands down. My mom saved this for years.  And now I have saved it for years.  And now I put my 2nd or 1st or 3rd grade project in the garbage.  Wait wait. Maybe my children will say, "why don't I have some of mama's original artwork from when she was a kid,"

Nope.  Just asked the 10 year old.  "Yeah mama, put it on your blog. Perfect solution."

We Built This City...

On rock and roll, you hum?  No!  On compost.  Kudos, congrats, kol hakavod to New York City for running a pilot city compost program.

While visiting my sister Reba this week I saw the bins along her street.  Naturally the neighborhood is the perfect place to try it out:  she lives in a part of Brooklyn where you have a lot of organic food pushers.  So glad NYC is moving along with this.

Further to my music reference above, I am happy to report that my end of year visit to Manhattan was wonderful all around.  It was fueled by the music that I love best.  I saw friends and family both at the shows and in the times in between. We went to museums, consumed many a brunch, walked through Central Park with the kinderlach, and hung with the cousins. Levi did well with his mama out two nights in a row and I was grateful to my sister and brother in law for facilitating that.  Sadly I didn't allow my children to watch a movie on New Year's Eve, and that was a break with their tradition.  My children were acting way overtired so I just made them to to bed by 10.   Why I couldn't get it together for them to be sitting at a movie by 8 I don't know why.  Oh right I have a baby.  But what about my Stango help?  Obviously I failed in delegating and giving him some guidance.  Gotta work on that. 

While I would love to wax poetic about how Madison Square Garden is the most festive, fun, youthful, for-kids-of-all-ages-perhaps-15-and-over celebration in all of New York City, I gotta get dressed and make school lunches.

And just because you should see the greatness of what New Year's Eve could look like


 And here's to 30 years of Phish (didn't see it yet as I didn't go to the New Year's show)



If it was the secular New Year that means that Chinese New Year is coming up which means it's time to make Marci's "chinese New Year's cookies!"  I have had the ingredients for a while now.

Oh, so much to do...
And just because

Blues Brothers On New Year's Eve Would be Fun!

So many people were disappointed that Phish didn't cover a whole album, as has been their custom for the past many years, on Halloween this year in Atlantic City.   Well, why not stay broken from tradition and make up for this on New Year's Eve as part of their annual "prank?"

And do a cover of the Blues Brothers soundtrack?




At the gym today I listened to it, and yep, it could totally fly!

Maybe they should do an abridged format.

But I can just picture it:  bring out the Giant Country Horns



Who would cover Aretha, though?





If Clapton and Jeff Beck already covered Shake Your Moneymaker, why can't Phish?





And how about Shake a Tail Feather...the ultimate!



I mean, pulease!  Isn't that just custom-made for Fish?

Phish is My Church, With Some Sweat To Boot!

That's a line I have heard so many times over at shows.
Said mostly by people who don't go to church.
At least regularly.

Not the choice of words I would use, but I like to be provocative.
You actually thought I would say that?

But you could fill in other words, too.

Phish is My Zen.
Phish is My Temple.
Phish is My Services.
Phish is My Child's Pose.
Phish is My Creme Brulee.
Phish is My Monastery.
Phish is My 30 Foot Yacht.
Phish is My Minaret.
Phish is My Delicious Dish.

For those who go or don't go to houses of worship, one thing that those who see Phish repeatedly over the years have in common with prayer services is a set liturgy.  We know the songs, we love the music, we know the words (or don't, and just hum along).  It is a familiar feeling of coming home, a sense of happiness and elevation to a more meaningful level of life that draws us again and again to see this great band.

And for the newbies, the uninitiated among us, that first show can also be a sense of homeyness, comfort, joy.

And this is one of many reasons why I am so grateful for Phish.  I plan to run the Midnight Run (um...Just learned the fee is $65!  Fer realz!?!?  I could get to a show for just a little bit more $!  Alas, I really am looking forward to running in Central Park.  It's been a long time)  next week on New Year's eve (no NYE Phish show for me; but I'll be there for some shows earlier in the NYE run).

I haven't run a 5K in a while.  So at the gym just now I gave it a test run.  I played some Live Bait and I was set.  All I needed was a Wilson, Tweezer and YEM and I got there with minimal pain, and maximum gain.  So happy to listen to my favorite music and do a leisurely 5k on the treadmill.

And if you caught my SNL reference above, check out Mr. Alec Baldwin.  'Tis the season, after all.





I imagine that link won't last long. Lorne, I hear ya on protecting your Intellectual Property, but can you give this mama a break?

My Husband Finally Watched Netflix!

There is limited time to devote to a show or movie, but I enjoy kicking back and watching something good.  Lately, it is "Freaks and Geeks."  How embarrased would I be if I met Judd Apatow and Paul Feig, the creators of that show, and was like, um yeah 14 years later I am watching your show and it's totally rad; you guys are da bomb; I wanna be from Lake Winnipesaukee and tell you that you're wicked cool.  Good thing I have no meeting set in the near future at my local Coffee Bean to chat with Judd. 

 My husband is more selective. He rarely watches anything. He misses the good old Eddie Murphy comedies, he says. Most evenings he is at the computer reading a research article on the brain.  I guess I have it ok.  Better that then action movies or ball games.  Stango loves his work in the field of Neurology and doesn't stop learning after-hours.

So you might imagine my excitement when I saw the Netflix screen opened to something new!  Here's what I saw:

Seriously?  A brain talk?

I hope my husband enjoyed what he saw, and I hope it not only contributed towards his bettering the world but also, ultimately, our bank account!

Don't Pretzel My Buttons

And don't think I'm so clever, either: it's the name of the OPI nail polish I just got.  Kudos to the witty nail polish color writers.  Takes on a whole new definition of Hallmark card writer.  It was Concealed Light, Levi and I at the nail salon.

CL was such a great helper with the baby and reminded me of Miriam in this week's Torah portion, Exodus (Shnmot in Hebrew) who was a midwife and helped out her own mother as well.  Okay okay my daughter isn't quite catching babies as they exit the womb, but she did hold my baby while I was getting the mani.  

Coco, the ever chic Korean proprietor of my nail salon, questioned if it was ok that my 10 year old was holding him.  Clearly she didn't know that Jewish girls (and boys in my home) are employed at a young age to assist in childcare!  Let me give credit where credit is due and say that Coco was also an awesome helper.  She held Levi while I was getting my pedi and Concealed Light was getting her manicure.

Ultimately it was because of Miriam's prophecy that she and her mother Yocheved cared for, in secret, the Jewish baby boys, and saved the entire Jewish people.

Go girl power right from the start.

Like the color?

What's a Whole Phamily blog post without some music.  So, enjoy Bob Marley's Exodus," have a great Shabbes and enjoy your manicure if you got one this week!

Bottega Veneta can be Hippy Chic

Or, in Case You Thought I Was a Card-Carrying Hippy Chick...

My mother has good taste.  She told me about Bottega Veneta when I was a young girl, and when their store opened in our mall she told me that it was a fine place to shop for handbags.  I am so grateful to my mother for planting the seeds of the finest of taste.

Only recently have I learned about the company's history and the workmanship that goes into each piece.  That's what you get for reading The New Yorker.  No, I can't post a link to the great article, as Conde Nast is highly protective of their Intellectual Property.  Ya know what, good for them!

Bottega's classic butter-soft leather woven bags have a distinctive look which has been copied many times over.  You know the look, but you just don't know that it's Bottega.  These bags are the ultimate understated elegance.  One need simply only to say Bottega and nothing else.  No flashy labels, no flashy logos, no flashy nothing.  Their artisans, working out of a small town in Italy, are trained and apprenticed to hand-craft their bags.

Indeed, their company motto is "When your own initials are enough."

I don't want a Kelly bag.
I don't want a classic quilted Chanel bag.
Louis Vuitton totes?  So passe!
One day I would love a big ole Bottega.

Advertisement from back of  a recent New York Magazine 

 I was blown away to see the above ad.  Just as my 5th grade teacher taught me, if the ad is on the back of the magazine you know it's important.  Check out how they are making home furnishings now.  And look at that pillow.  I'd take just the pillow alone!

Last spring I had the opportunity to visit their Manhattan store on 5th Avenue.  What a lovely ambience.  Some older women were in there buying Bottega luggage.  As if!

Take a guess as to who now owns the Bottega company?

Gucci.

How Bout Dem Apples?

Earlier this fall I went into Ezra's class to do a taste test of various types of apples with the first graders.  I brought in Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji and Braeburn (note my executive decision to capitalize the Names of the Apples).  I got the idea because in a conversation with Ezra, the Wolfman's Brother, I realized he didn't know that there were different kinds of apples.  Plus I wanted to find a reason to do something in his class.  It's good when your mama comes into your class to do something.  In 1982 or so my friend Rachel's mother came in to my 3rd grade class to make something called moon bars.  It coincided with a Space Shuttle launch.  They were yummy and chocolatey.  And then my classmate Marlene's mother came and made what was called ambrosia.  It coincided with nothing.  It was coconutty with oranges and marshmallows.  It was gross.

Surprisingly the kids chose Granny Smith as their overall favorite. I thought it would be Honeycrisp.  A little boy named David, one of Ezra's friends with a huge head of black curly hair, was wearing green that day.  He kept wanting more Granny Smith.  He was even wearing a green kipa.  It was so funny!  Coincidence or not?  Who knows.

  And now I can declutter by posting a photo of the lovely thank you note from the class.  I especially love how Nate, a soft spoken boy with light brown curly hair, signed his name.  First grade is so sweet and Ezra is fortunate to have Mrs. Laytin as his teacher. 

We had fun on Thanksgivukkah

Here's a little recap.

We visited the Museum of Natural History the day before Thanksgiving.

Went to a favorite spot, the Astor Turret.

Note the special occasion chairs set up.
That was for the next day's VIPs who had access to the museum for coffee and bonbons.

The kids were mesmerized by the window washers.

Next day was the Parade.
Thank you to my brother in law for the prime spot.

Though I must say , and my bro in law agrees with me, that I was instrumental in making  this year's spot happen as well.

Just leave it to us clowns to find the opening, the opportunity to make the morning a success for our family.

We hung out with the cousins

And with Nana and Zady

We lit Hanukkah candles

We had Grammy's famous apple pie which is more like a pan pie these days.  Nana said she didn't roll out the dough thin like Grammy.  But she did a beautiful lattice!  That takes a lot of work!

And then some Thanksgiving meal

Coming soon is the 2nd part of the weekend which included my birthday (no photos:  I was cooking and cleaning and entertaining friends however Stango redeemed himself by getting me 6 Crumbs cupcakes a few days after my birthday.  Yummy. Dairy. Alas no photos), a nice visit with Aunt Reba and Cousin Girl and then my family Chanukkah party at our house with a lot of my cousins and one of my aunts.  It was so much fun as always.  Pics coming...

Lela the Fawn is the Underground Sophie the Giraffe and Why I Wish I Could Write Like Cool Mom Shit and I Love Wes Anderson

Make no mistake: I am an amateur.  I make no money from this blog.  My readership is limited.  My look and feel is crude and rudimentary.  Wes Anderson look and feel?  Yeah, right!

Yet, and let me be quite bold here, my ideas are huge. My thoughts are big.  My uncanny ability to make connections is unparalleled.  I often ask Stango when will my time come for those who matter to recognize my efforts?  When will I get credit where credit's due?  When will the stars align and all my dreams become realities?

You might chalk it up to being too scattered with no focus on one particular niche, but I'm onto stuff.

If you had a baby in the past 10 years and you have any semblance of cultural currency, you're familiar with Sophie the Giraffe.  I recall when I first saw her in an upscale children's shop on Greenwich Avenue (yes, to all you in-the-know mothers who make their own baby food and don't give credit to Diane Keaton where credit is due since she's the original Hollywood make your own baby food mama in Baby Boom, I'm talking about Giggle).

I thought Sophie was cute, but we were past the teething stage and I the $25 price tag for a TEETHING TOY was obscene.  It was more about what I saw Sophie became.  For an East Coast mama, lemme pat myself on the back and state I was always 2 steps ahead of the trends when it came to baby gear (having adopted the Ergo in 2003 (I think ours came shipped straight from Hawaii when they were still small-scale!) and the BOB SUS stroller in 2004 (back when the original 3 guys were still running the company and before the moved to Idaho-Utah or wherever they moved to once they outgrew their San Luis Obispo locale, and wayyyyy before they sold out to Britax) , but when she became Sophie The Giraffe That Everyone And Her Follow The Trendy Herd Mother and Her Mother Must Have (she's sold in Toys R Us now?  Are you kidding me!?!), you can betchyer bottom dollar that I would.not.buy.this.for.my.child.

Fast forward many years.

I have a sweet new baby.

#4 in case you were sleeping the past coupla months.

And I have discovered Lela the Fawn.

As my new friend Angela, the owner of the super awesome store Cloth in South Philly quips, Lela is the Underground Sophie.

And I'm a proud owner of her.

Scratch that.  Eddie is.

Scratch that.  Levi is.

I decided it's time to go with real names.  At least for my own kids.  (remember, I'm not a professional blogger, but it's one of the many many "shards of brilliance" that Liz Gumbinner of Cool Mom Picks has mentioned in the past.  Oh why oh why oh why can't I write like Liz.  I love Liz.  I mean I love what she writes.  She's seriously the coolest and I have said that here before.  No she's not the coolest.  Her blog, she wrote recently, was called Cool Mom Shit for 3 days.  So it's safe to say that Liz Gumbinner is the shizzle.  Liz is the shizzlest.)

Looks like Lela just hit the sidewalks this past summer.  Thanks David Beerman and Ivy Street for bringing her over from Deutschland.  Mr. Beerman's company distributes the Moby Wrap.  Yet another baby gear product that was way underground for years.  Don't get me started on babywearing.  When will German Woven Wraps (GWW) have their 15 minutes?  When will they really emerge from the underground?   How ridiculous is it that I only have a Neobulle and a Dulcino and mostly what people say to me is, "Is that a Moby Wrap?"  Uh, no, sorry, there is litcherally a *whole world* of baby carriers out there!  I love The Baby Wearer and admit I haven't been on there nearly enough, and Wrapping Rachel  and Babywearing Faith are my heros and I've only mastered the FWCC but really I should be able to do the FWC by now, let alone the HWCC and when am I gonna move onto rebozo, rucksack and learn how to do a candy cane chestbelt (is that CCC? See, I'm not babywearing geeky enough).  I recently posted on my baby wearing group's Facebook account that someone ought to write a definitive book on all the carries out there (including their acronyms).  Enough about my babywearing digression for now.

This mama's all over that shit fawn!

Take that, trendy mama.

Whole Phamily rocks this town!

Oh, and I should mention I had the most lovely birthday last week.  No more Facebook birthday announcement for me.  I decided last year, taking inspiration from my sis Reba, to delete my birthday from Facebook.  I didn't want "fake" birthday greetings.  And ya know what, those who really matter to me wished me birthday greetings.  I was touched, even if these are friends I never speak with, or maybe once a year.  Or maybe we do still speak every couple of months.  These are my long-time peeps.  I wish we got to hang out more.

I often send a Stevie Wonder birthday greeting to people on Facebook, but alas nary a yom huledet sameach on my page.

We had rack of lamb for dinner.   Stango got me the new Wes Anderson book.  I hired extra cleaning help on Friday in anticipation of our many visitors over the weekend.  New Bobbi Brown makeup and Lululemon workout clothes worked their way into the mix.  My mother in law gave me a really pretty pair of Edwin Pearl earrings she no longer wears (keep your no-longer-wearing-it jewelry coming!) and my birthday celebration extended over many days.  We just finished the delicious Crumbs cupcakes I guilted my sweet husband into gettting since I had no cake over the weekend (granted, it *was* Thanksgivukkah AND our anniversary).

And now for some clips that I overtly or subliminally referred to in this post:

"betchyer bottom dollar" (feeling guilty I haven't taken Concealed Light umm Nistar yet to Annie but I'll be honest here and state that I am a show seat snob when it comes to Broadway and I would only guess it would be $200 a seat to take her and you think I can afford that?  Erase your preconceived notions of who you might think I am just because I just posted all that material stuff about my birthday.  $400 is a lot of money for me.)

Baby Boom




Rock this Town - Stray Cats


Happy Birthday

Listening to Stevie now is getting me pretty psyched for the funk Phish is gonna likely bust out this coming New Year's... you know Boogie On is simply the best!






Meanwhile in Wes Anderson land...this is coming, this is coming soon!





And someone said I have no focus?