Asabi arranged everything carefully on the table, glancing now and then at the clock over the sink. She couldn't tell time, but she knew her numbers and Abba promised to be home before it was all fives. She knew the number five very well.
5:51.
It was soon. She was gleeful; a giddy excitement coming over her as each minute ticked by. She skipped around the table once, then twice until finally climbing up on her chair to wait.
5:52.
They had been talking about Chanukah for days. How the Macabees retook and rededicated the Temple. How there was only enough oil for one day, but the miracle kept the lamp burning for eight. Abba promised to teach her to make latkes when he came home tonight. She spun the wooden dreidl and watched it fall over. The letter looked like a 'w'. She looked at the clock.
5:54.
Her head snapped to the door and she smiled brightly. "Abba!" she called out.
Anthony came straight over to kiss her on the head. "How are you, Princess?"
"Can we start?" She began to rearrange the items on the table again and he laughed.
"Let me say hello to Mummy and Fi and hang my robes up. Okay?" Asabi nodded and he continued, "You can wash the potatoes while I do that. Where are they?"
Asabi jumped down from the chair and dragged the bag of potatoes over. Tony lifted it and put five or six in the sink while Asabi pushed the chair against the sink. Tony ran the water directing her to wash them and place them in the metal bowl he set on the work top. He kissed the top of her head again before leaving the kitchen for a few moments. "I will be right back."
Asabi stood on the chair and leaned over the double sink. She turned each potato over in her hand letting the cold water run over them. She took the vegetable brush and scrubbed all around, splotches of dirt falling into the sink as each potato was washed.
The bowl filled slowly with the clean potatoes. Asabi rinsed her hands and dried them on the tea towel hanging from the door under the sink. Abba had just returned as she was drying her hands, and now they poured the potatoes out, peeling and chopping them and putting them back into the bowl to mix with the onions, salt and pepper, and flour with two eggs. Tony let her pour the oil into the pan while it was cool, but once he lit the burner with his wand, she was sent back to the table to mix the potatoes with a spoon.
"No," Abba admonished when Asabi went to lick the spoon. "You don't lick raw eggs. Are they mixed well, Asa?"
She nodded and he took the spoon first and then the bowl with a smile. He dropped the potato mixture spoon by spoon into the pan and Asabi could hear the sizzling as each drop hit the hot oil. She stood on tiptoe on her chair and watched as Abba flipped each pancake and set them to cool on a towel on the warming plate. She spun the largest dreidl and then the smallest and then the largest again until she had all five of them going at the same time.
"Which letter is this?"
Tony turned and Asabi pointed to what looked like a sideways 'n'. "That's a nun."
"And this one?"
"Gimmel."
"And?"
He checked to be sure that the latkes wouldn't burn while he was away from them for the moment. He came over, turning the dreidl around in her hand, pausing at each letter, pointing and naming. "Nun, gimmel, hay, shin. Do you remember what they stand for?"
She rolled her eyes in a thoughtful way, but slowly shook her head. "Tell me."
"Nes gadol hayah sham. A great miracle happened there. Tell me the story."
And she recounted what he'd told her on the weekend when they read the books. The latkes were now ready and Asabi watched as Tony prepared some applesauce and sour cream along with the hot pancakes, putting them in the center of the table, sliding the dreidls aside to make room.
"What about the Quidditch cup? Do we use that for Chanukah?"
"The what, Asa?"
"The Quidditch cup."
"The…do you mean the Kiddush cup? For the wine?" She nodded. "We don't. We light the candles."
He set up the menorah and Asabi ran out of the kitchen calling for Mummy and Firyali to come join them. When they were all assembled, Asabi stood on the chair again. Her face was bright and she looked to Abba to light the Shamash, which he did with his wand. She turned to make sure that Mummy with Fi on her lap could see the menorah from where they were sitting.
Tony nodded at his oldest daughter. She lifted the Shamash and as she laid it against the first candle, she repeated Tony's words of prayer:
"Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melech haolam asher kideshanu bemitzvotav vetzivanu lehadlik ner Chanukah.
Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melech Haolam sheasa nisim laavotenu bayamim hahem bizman hazeh.
Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melech Haolam shehecheyanu vekiyimanu vehigianu lizman hazeh."
Asabi smiled as the candlelight reflected in the windowpane while the flame danced. Tony handed each of the girls a gold colored pouch. She opened hers and found a few knuts and sickles along with some chocolate and a new wooden dreidl. She remembered that they received this same gift last year on the first day as well. This was only her second Chanukah and she knew that Abba would always give his girls this as their first gift – gelt, chocolate and a new dreidl. Abba said that he always lost his dreidl when he was little and he didn't want them to be without one for the rest of the week.
They all sat around the table. Asabi spun her new dreidl every now and then, wondering what gift tomorrow would bring while she sopped up the applesauce with her warm pancake. She was facing the menorah and watched as the two candles burned down through their dinner. There was laughing around their table and the clatter of two dreidls falling over.
2nd Author's Note: I used real world experiences, so it may not adhere to the letter of everyone's Chanukah tradition. I used the prayer as written on the website. The translation appears below.
The conversation between Tony and Asabi about the Kiddush/Quidditch cup is an actual conversation (or very close) that thanfiction had with my son (who is roughly the same age as Asabi) while they were reading together.
Translation:
Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah light.
Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days, at this time.
Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.