Celebration Time

Elvy Howard's New Year’s Resolution

I know, the holidays are over and everyone’s sick of them, but I’m doing a different sort of blog this time. At some point (recently) I realized I needed to celebrate more. To be specific, celebrate me more. 

You see, I’ve always been the kind of person who didn’t notice, or pay attention to my accomplishments. So, my New Year’s resolution is to correct this, ergo, my Hanukkah tablecloth. 

I made the tablecloth roughly fourteen or fifteen years ago. It’s six sided (for the six-sided Star of David) and has tacky, iron-on appliques originally designed for a do-it-yourself sweatshirt. That’s not the sort of thing I wear, so I used them for the tablecloth. 

Then my first grandchild, Lauren, was born and I had another idea.

And every year since, I have outlined her hand. Then her brother’s, Mason’s hand, when he came along. When my daughter’s twin boys’, Levi and Tyler, arrived almost two years ago, they got their hand prints put on the tablecloth, along-side their cousins’.

By now, we are beginning to run out of room for new handprints, but it won’t be a problem, we’ll just overlap them when we have to. My appliques are getting ragged, I had to color in a few candles that got lost in the wash, but it all adds to the charm of the thing. 

My one-of-a-kind Hanukkah tablecloth, shabby, falling apart, and loved, is one of my most prized possessions. It’s something between me, my grandkids, and our history as a family. 

I am inordinately proud of it. 

Here’s to whatever we are proud of, let’s all celebrate - - - US! 

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Watch for Elvy Howard's debut novel, Love on a Half Shell, coming winter 2013 from Edward Allen Publishing. Three parts love, two parts grit...the perfect recipe to save a family.