Happy Hanukkah 2009

I would like to wish my Jewish friends/readers a very happy Hanukkah!



I found out the hard way that when using a thin sparkler candle as the center candle of a menorah you have to make sure to leave enough room between that candle and the ones next to it otherwise the middle will melt and it will collapse and start on fire... All was well though, I blew them out and the cake is fine (and very very yummy!). Maybe I should have consulted with Melisa on this one, I'm sure she would have known this, lol! I hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday season, and doesn't set their baked goods on fire like me ;)

All I Want for Christmas

Music is a funny thing. Music can bring out pretty much every emotion, fear, loathing, sadness, joy, love; the list goes on. Today the song "All I Want for Christmas is You" took on an extra meaning for me and I'm sure quite a few others as well. As any of my regular readers know one of the people that I have befriended through blogging is WeaselMomma. I hero worship should probably have a restraining order filed against me adore her and her family as does my niece who was bummed out that we couldn't visit them during the Thanksgiving holiday and who would have totally abandoned me to live with them had I not insisted she come home with me after visiting Weaselville last year (I am totally serious, it first time the "Well fine you can stay but I'M leaving!" trick did not work on her!). Today WeaselMomma wrote a post about two of her daughters and how this song inspired a sad yet beautiful moment between the three of them:

When most people hear that song they probably think of a romantic relationship, for WeaselMomma it is about Angel Weasel. Claire passed away unexpectedly seven years ago when she was only two weeks old and left a hole that will never be filled in the Weasel family so the song "All I Want for Christmas is You" is a painful reminder of the only person that WeaselMomma really wants but cannot have in this life. The other day when that song came on the radio her eldest daughter saw the pain in her mother's face and did the only thing that she could do for her mother, she gave her a hug and let her mother grieve for the child she lost while holding on to one that she is blessed to still have.

I encourage anyone who reads this to go read the post WeaselMomma wrote, it is a beautiful expression of the love between a mother and her children. If you are like me and wish you could give WeaselMomma a hug and make it all better (not that anyone or anything could make it all better) she gives you a way that you can do so virtually in the form of a donation to SIDS of Illinois, an organization that provides support to bereaved parents and family who have lost an infant, educates people to try and lower the incidence of infant death, works to inform emergency responders on how to be compassionate towards those who have just lost a child, and very importantly provides funding for researchers working to reduce and someday eliminate the incidence of SIDS and other causes infant death. This organization helped the Weasels get through the initial devastation of losing Claire and while it is based in Illinois many of the programs they have developed have been adopted nationally and research they help fund applies to all babies not just those born in Illinois.

If you make a donation in honor of "Claire Weasel" the Weasels will get a notification and know that their Angel Weasel has touched another heart, means something and is remembered by someone outside of her immediate family. From WeaselMomma and other parents who have lost a child I have learned that having their child remembered and matter to someone outside of their family is the greatest gift anyone can give and means the world to them. To sweeten the pot, if you donate and let me know I'll try and get Niecey to make a shout out video to say thank you, who could resist being mentioned in a video by this little imp???:

Please go give WeaselMomma some comment love and a virtual hug of any size you can afford, thanks! =)