A very Happy Hannukah to any and all out there who are celebrating.  A few years ago, when I converted to Judaism, my very sweet dad and stepmom got a big kick out of buying a Menorah to put out with the rest of the holiday decorations. It was sweet of them, but whether an issue of timing or laziness, it was never lit.  Last night, though, they were all excited about celebrating the first night of Hannukah with us.  So, I cooked up a storm (brisket, latkes with homemade applesauce, and noodle kugel). The kids had their first latkes, and Rebecca, for one, is solidly anti-sour cream. Later, we lit the candles and played dreidel for money.  Actually, none of us (M included) had ever played dreidel, and we fairly quickly decided it’s kind of boring.  So we switched to the similarly-inspired Left, Right, Center – always a favorite at our house, and Dad won the whopping $15 pot.

All of this reminded me of my friend Tara’s question on an earlier Hot Seat post:

I know you converted to Judiasm when you married M, although you grew up Christian. I think you’ve mentioned before something about Christmas. So I’m wondering what your “plans” are for teaching your kids about religion and balancing the various holiday celebrations that your extended families take part in.

The answer is… I’m not really sure.  I know, lame.  But I really am not entirely sure how I want to deal with this, and have happily used the excuse of “they’re too young to understand, anyways” so far.  I wrote about it last year around this time, and I haven’t gotten much further in my thinking.

So, for the background: I grew up in a Catholic-ish house. My parents were never the church-going type, but sent us to Sunday School because, you know, it’s what you’re supposed to do. Some members of my (large, Irish) extended family are more practicing than we were, but religion was not a big part of my life growing up.  I spent a few years loosely self-identifying as Episcopal, mostly because there was a church I really enjoyed, but I wasn’t really into the specifics of the actual belief system.

It was in college, in an intro to religion class, that I first toyed with the idea of considering Judaism.  But I never really took it anywhere.  Then, I met M. His dad is Puerto Rican, his mom is the daughter of German Jewish immigrants who fled Europe in the earliest days of WWII.  When talking about a possible future together, M always said it was important to him to raise his (someday) kids Jewish.  Sounded good to me!

Anyways, I started reading, eventually decided I wanted to actually convert, myself (zero pressure from M or my future in-laws… we weren’t even engaged at the time).  It was a great experience, but a long one. By the time it was “official,” I was a little burned out and we haven’t brought a lot of practice into our daily lives. No nearby synagogue that we really like, and Friday evening services just don’t jive with our kids’ early bedtime.

But I do want it to be a part of our kids’ lives.  I want to do nice, family Friday Shabbat dinners.  I want to have beloved Jewish traditions.  But I also want to come back to Chicago every Christmas.  I want them to be a part of what is, to me, a great family holiday. And I still don’t know how I’m going to explain those things to them in a way that is truthful and unambiguous, but without sucking any of the joy from either side.

Yep.  Still putting it off until next year…