That had been five years ago, and this year he would actually spend Chanukah with Donna, and not just leave her gifts on her desk each night.
After talking to his mother, he had gone out to try and find some gifts, but as it was late at night, he gave up and just went home, deciding to take a long lunch the next day to find her gifts.
He was walking towards the mall when he noticed a glass blower's shop. In the window he saw, not only several different menorahs, but also dreidels and Stars of David. The shop was called Weinstein and Daughters and Josh was immediately drawn to it.
He went inside and was looking at the display of menorahs when an elderly gentleman came out from the back room and greeted him.
"Hello, I'm Abraham Weinstein; can I help you with something?"
"Hi, Josh Lyman; I'm looking for a menorah for someone but none of the ones you have here are quite right, even if they are very beautiful."
"Well, we do make custom-made things too; what did you have in mind?"
"I'm not really sure."
Josh looked around, uncertain, until he saw a specific menorah that had previously been cast in shadow. He looked at it and knew right away what he wanted. He pointed to it and looked at Abraham.
"Can you make something like that, just, you know, different, before Hanukkah?"
"Sure, it doesn't take as long as you'd think; my daughters and I work in tandem on something like that."
Josh smiled and told him what he had in mind. He even ordered one for himself figuring that it couldn't hurt to try and remember his roots, he had promised his grandfather never to forget, after all.
He also bought one of the dreidels and took that with him before going on to the last stop before going back to the office, happy with the shopping excursion.
He had gone back the first day of Hanukkah to pick up the menorah for Donna; it was absolutely stunning. It was a pale pink, almost white; the base was 20 inches long, 4 inches wide and an inch thick. In the same pale pink glass, and placed on top of the base, was written Donnatella and on top of that was another plate like the base. In the middle of it was a blue Star of David and on each side of the star were four candle holders, and the ninth holder, for the Shamash candle, was on top of the star.
Mr. Weinstein took out one more Menorah; this time it was Josh's own. This was only 12 inches long, it said Joshua instead of Donnatella and the glass was very pale blue as opposed to pink; the Star of David was also smaller to accommodate the shorter base.
"You finished mine too? Wow, you work fast. They are beautiful; thank you so much, I know she's going to love it, I know I love mine."
Josh smiled gratefully at the older man who preened a little at the praise.
"Can I ask you something, if you don't want to answer you can just tell me to mind my own business, but Donnatella isn't your typical Jewish name, how did she end up with that?"
Josh chuckled a little before answering.
"You're right; it's not a Jewish name. Her mother is Italian and her father is Irish; she just converted to Judaism a year and a half ago. Before that, she would probably have told you she was protestant, but she was more relapsed than anything."
Abraham Weinstein nodded in understanding.
"That makes sense, then; I wonder what her Hebrew name is then."
Josh was taken aback at that; he hadn't thought about it, but the glassblower was right, she would have had to have a Hebrew name to be called to the Torah with. He hadn't thought to ask Toby, didn't even know if the other man knew; he figured he'd just have to ask Donna herself at some point.
"I don't know actually."
"Well when you find out and if she is interested, you can come back and have it engraved on the Star of David in Hebrew."
Josh smiled at that; he actually loved that idea and thought he'd like to have his own name engraved in Hebrew too.
He left the shop and drove back to The White House with Donna's Menorah wrapped in beautiful silver paper with little dreidels and Stars of David on it, his own was wrapped in bubble wrap and in a bag in the trunk of his car.
He placed the gift on Donna's desk and went to his own office, happy that his assistant had stepped away from her cubicle for a minute.
He had put a card with the gift explaining that while she was a grown-up and he'd normally only give her one gift for Hanukkah, he had decided that since it was the first year he knew she celebrated, he would give her one each night. He would also normally save the biggest gift for the last day, but the reason why it came as the first one would be self-explanatory when she opened the gift.
The look on her face when she later came in to thank him was worth the cost and the grief he got from CJ for being such a nice sweet boy; and yes, that was her teasing him.
The second day he gave her the glass dreidel and added a wooden one he had found at the second store he had gone to. He added the note inside the gift this time;
'Donna, I saw the glass dreidel the same place where I bought your menorah and thought you'd like it. I know you never got to play with one when you were a kid and a glass one really isn't the best for that so I got you the other one for that purpose.'
That gift and the Geld he got her the last six days were received with equal enthusiasm as the menorah had. Even with all that, things between the two were still strained after the whole ordeal about Cliff Calley and the diary which would explain why Josh let himself get ensorcelled with Amy Gartner and all the grief that caused.
They got back to normal, or at least normal for them, but it still took five more years, a lot of heartache and two presidential campaigns before they finally made a move to get together.