It's My Party and I'll Fry If I Want To...

This week we've been celebrating Chanukah. Being away from our family, we decided to start a new tradition, so we held our first annual Chanukah party. Like missionaries, we decided to educate the good folk of Naperville in traditional Chanukah activities.
Of course most important in any Jewish festival is the food (apart from Yom Kippur of course when you can't eat anything).
Personally I would have the whole thing catered by our local Jewish style deli, but this wasn't good enough for Ross. In the absence of my brother and sister-in-law, professionals who set a very high level for our summer barbecue, it was left to me to do the best I could.
For weeks we've been running around town trying to find the best meats, donuts etc. I must have put on 4lbs just trying the different donut shops to find the closest to the little round jam donuts we have in England.
I have spent all week making latkes to get them just right. Latkes are potato pancakes fried in oil. In England I confess I used to buy them frozen, but now, in my new role as Desperate Jewish Housewife, I have to grate pounds of potatoes and onions.
Now what may surprise those of you know who know Ross and I personally, is that although we are all sweetness and light on the surface, when we're on our own we bicker about everything.
I know, it's hard believe, but true.
After the donuts and latke row, it was the chocolate coins.
"These don't even look like coins," he moaned, as he opened the bag with Chocolate Coins written on the front. "You might as well put out Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisps".
"They're American," I grizzled, up to my arms in latke mix, oil dripping down the walls. "Maybe they're dollars."
The festive Chanukah tablecloth was no good either. Fancy a paper cloth being too "papery"? We had to run out on the morning of the party to get a real one. Actually, I didn't mind this too much. At least we finally have a real table to put it on.
Oh, and don't forget the mantel piece..
For any new readers a quick recap here. When we bought our house earlier this year we gave our builder Matt (aka Jett to Naperville Sun readers) the task of remodelling the entire house in six weeks because we had a housewarming/birthday party already planned.
He did a brilliant job of finishing everything....apart from the mantel piece in the family room.
On the scheme of things at the time this didn't matter at all. Since then he has indeed fitted the shelf, but hadn't got round to staining it.
On Wednesday I emailed him, saying, just for old times sake, that we were having another party, and could he manage to finish the shelf in time?
As last time I invited him to the party so he would be able to show off his handywork. You never know who needs a mantel piece, do you?
By the morning of the party the shelf was stained, but not varnished. I knew Jett wouldn't let me down, but with every latke I flipped out of the pan, the more worried I became.
With Ross helping in the best way he could, by leaving me alone for four hours while he got the car serviced, I texted Jett with "Have you forgotten something?"
"Oh, #@*!," he replied, "I'll be there as soon as I can."
By 8 p.m. the shelf was dry and 2 gallons of latke mixed was scraped of the worktop (whose idea was it to have impossible to clean granite anyway? Oh yes, Jett's. I guess it's ok then.)
Our guests arrived and the party, if I say so myself, was a huge success. We explained the story of Chanukah, lit candles, sang in Hebrew and everyone played dreidl with the chocolate coins.
Unfortunately we ran out of latkes, but you can't have everything....