My favorite song by John Lennon and The Beatles is “With A Little Help From My Friends” and that’s how it was in a week when I celebrated Hanukkah in a unique way and was featured on Page Six in the New York Post thanks to my friend.
With group family celebrations impossible, my family celebrated Hanukkah like never before. I still got to be with my kids and grandkids, but not all at once. We celebrated separately and safely!
Seeing Hudson, who is chock full of ideas, and his sister Sloane, the leader of her class, shooting down my block to the duck pond on their scooters laughing and squealing all the way warmed my heart.
Later that evening, I spent some time with my daughter Samantha, her husband Spencer, their son Blake who just recovered from a bout with COVID-19, and his sister Morgan, who is a dancing “star” on TikTok. We had a socially distant dinner in their backyard, with two torches warming us as we sat around separate, but attached tables to dine together.
The next night of Hanukkah, I met my daughter Elizabeth, her beautiful daughter Addy and handsome son Jonah for dinner in the heat-blown tent outside of Trattoria DiMeo in Roslyn Heights.
Lucky for us, but sad for the restaurant, we were the only patrons in the large white tent. The tables were draped in white tablecloths, white napkins and fabric-covered chairs.
I felt like I was in heaven because I got to talk with my daughter and grandkids about what’s going on in their lives. Addy, who is only in fourth grade, was already planning the dress she would wear two years from now for Jonah’s bar mitzvah. Meanwhile, Jonah was checking online to see if his dream gift of a new Xbox Series X was in stock at Best Buy and a few other stores.
It warmed my heart to see Addy worried about reaching one of her goals. “Grammy, I hope I raise my goal of $1,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,” she told me. She did it before and I know she will do it again! I have faith in her!
What a perfect night it was. The silver lining of this terrible pandemic is that I got to be with each family group by myself to celebrate the holiday!
We should all pray we will get the vaccine and be safe! After all, getting the vaccine will protect our families, friends and colleagues. It’s a good “herd” to be part of!
In the meantime, my gift to everyone this year was masks! We wear them to protect ourselves and everyone around us. You should, too!
Life is also enriched by friends and I’m grateful to Todd Shapiro, a PR man and writer extraordinaire.
When he wrote a profile for our newly acquired Dan’s Papers of Beth Stern, an animal activist at North Shore Animal League America.
Surprisingly, the organization asked me if I’d like to use Howard Stern’s art for the front cover of Dan’s Papers, in honor of his wife Beth’s profile.
I asked them to share some of his work and to my delight, one of the three offered was perfect for our cover. He is such a talented artist and his work will appear on the Dec. 18 cover of Dan’s Papers.
Todd then pitched the story of Howard’s stellar artwork to the New York Post’s Page Six. They published there in which I said, “If Howard ever gives up radio, I think he could make millions selling his art. He’s that talented!”
That quote also appeared in Vanity Fair this week.
