Great Hanukkah party!

My whole day yesterday was amazing. I could not believe the energy level that I had for the entire day, right up to 11 p.m. when I went to bed. We accomplished all of our errands, and my neulasta shot did not give me any side effects, yet anyway. When we got home at 4 p.m., normally I would have been totally exhausted and probably slept for two hours. Instead I spent two hours getting things ready for our holiday party without any fatigue at all. I totally felt like my "old" self. Everyone was commenting on my high energy level. It was AWESOME!!

Everyone arrived for the party between 6 and 6:40 p.m. Lowell lit candles with us, which is always a wonderfully warm feeling for me. We had a huge dinner, although I was disappointed with a lot of the food. I had seen tuna cakes, salmon cakes, and kosher "crab" cakes at the deli at Seven Mile Market. They all sounded and looked delicious, but they were mostly just filler and little fish. I didn't think the spices were that good, and I seemed to have dried them out too much in the oven reheating them. I also had ordered two dozen homemade latkes from the deli. Ditto with drying them out too much in the oven. Oh, well, at least applesauce or sour cream helped them out. The two best things were the coddies and the lemon pepper fish. I really only needed to have served them because they were delicious. The salad, fresh string beans, and donuts were all delicious, too.

After the huge dinner, we had a huge present exchange. It was so much fun! Mark and I had bought some gifts for everyone on our trip to Hawaii, so we gave those out last night. It was quite a lengthy time period of so many presents being opened that by the time we were finished it was already almost 9 p.m. At that point Lowell and his girlfriend Emily had to leave. That was sad because they didn't get to play Texas Hold'Em Dreidel with us, but we totally understood that she had a long drive home and had to get up at 5 a.m. to go to work. The rest of us played a few rounds with a time limit of 9:30 p.m. Denise was the big winner, so she took home the prizes: a box of chocolates and a big bottle of kosher Pomegranate wine. Actually Logan may have been the big winner because he took home a huge bag of chocolate gelt coins and all the dreidels! It was a really great family time! Thanks to all who came for the party. I loved it!

Today will be much more low key. Mark and I plan to stay home, watch some TV shows online that we've missed, and catch up on some other little odds and ends that can be done in the house. If I have as much energy as I did yesterday, I should definitely go out and take a long walk!