Sukkot Shenanigans 2025

Our first Sukkot at our new house ended a couple weeks ago, but I'm just getting a moment to reflect on it after a big trip to California and packed schedules with these active boys! Life is busy, but it's important to me to take some time to document it! So, without further delay - here is our Sukkot Shenanigans from this year!

Circus Murder Mystery Sukkah

It was a chaotic night in the sukkah with Thebe Igman, Siegfried Anroy, Andi Mann, Tai Nee, Ben Dee, Dan Stabby, S. Taghand, Jo King, Norm Alifunne, Darrin De’vil, Trap Eze, RM Burnum, and Dan German. One of them was the culprit of a serious crime under the Big Top, and we had to solve the mystery of who dunnit! We didn’t quite get the right answer, but it was fun trying! Perhaps we were too distracted by the food: Chicken RingMasters, corn dogs, strongman barbells, clown veggie dip, Animal Crackers, Circus Peanuts, Tightropes, JUGglers, candy apples, mac and cheese “popcorn,” and homemade cotton candy! Lots of sugar and lots of noisy, rowdy boys having fun on this first night of Sukkot!

Movie Sukkah

We enjoyed time with the Biedermans and two-fifths of the Holtzmans while celebrating movies. All foods represented a movie with its name in the title: Chicken Run, Good Burger, Big Fish, Children of the Corn, homemade Fried Green Tomatoes….and so on. We were able to move to the sukkah after a short rain kept us indoors for the main meal; we played some food-titled movie trivia and watched a short bit of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs before the kids begged me to change it to KPop… “C’mon Mom, it has Soda Pop in it. It goes with the theme!” What a fun night with Jack, Elliott, Isabel, Holly, and “Mrs. Holtzman” (a favorite teacher to Knox but who, to me, will always be Lauren- my longtime friend whom I met when she was just a first grader)!

Family Sayings Sukkah

Every family has their own little inside jokes and favorite sayings that have been passed down from one generation to the next. We had some fun with this and created a very interesting meal of foods that represent various funny, poignant, and/or memorable words that have become routine phrases or sayings in our house.

Baseball Sukkah

What a fun night with the best coaches, awesome teammates, and fun foods celebrating “America’s favorite pastime!” Peanuts, Cracker Jacks, hot dogs, sunflower seeds, and all the punny stuff: Plates, Cups, Mounds, celery “balks,” Handel’s Cake “Batter” ice cream, (out)field greens, “bases loaded” baked potatoes, sliders, and “grand slam”wiches! And Kimmy brought a BUNDT cake! We loved this theme, but more than that we loved hanging out with the Greens and the McElyeas on this gorgeous evening in the sukkah!

Greene Family Camp Sukkah

We paid homage to our home away from home: GFC. We listened to old camp songs and talked about our summers at GFC while enjoying Shabbat with the Figueroas, the Fitzgeralds, and the Marrones. This is one of those “if you know you know” themes, otherwise if you didn’t go to Greene, you won’t really get it. That’s the thing about summer camp - it’s all the inside things you can’t explain, the experiences, the lessons, the songs, the friendships, the connection to kids like you, the spirituality you gain under the “stars in the sky” while finding a piece of yourself you never knew existed. I love that my kids love GFC as much as I did as a kid. I love that we share this connection to a place that has been so good to and for our family. “We went away when we were very young, to find the person that we would become. To find the person that was hidden somewhere inside. What we discovered there, it still holds true, the friends you make become a part of you. The friends you make will each return to you like the tide. Stars in the Sky, bring the summer right back to me. Tell me you’ll try to think about me when ere you see those stars in the sky.”

UT Sukkah

We had an early gathering to watch the TX/OU game with Logan, Jeff, Cherie, Gretchen, Avi, and the kids! Sam and I honored our alma mater with all things representing The University of Texas: Beefo, Horns, 6 Pack, Austinuts, Texas Exes, Drag(on Fruit), PCLs, The Drum (sticks), Texas Toast, “Texas…. Fries!”, The Tower, and Big Bertha snack cups. The kids decorated cookies, making sure to give Bevo the “Eyes of Texas!” And the Longhorns made our day even more special by securing the W!! Hook ‘Em!!!

Home Alone Sukkah

As this theme suggests, we didn’t have any guests this night, but it was still fun nonetheless! “A cheese pizza just for me” from “Little Nero’s Pizza,” “filthy animal” crackers, “highly nutritious macaroni and cheese,” tarantulas, Pepsi, and ice cream sundaes as we “ate junk and watched rubbish” (watched the movie in the sukkah). It was a quaint and perfect ending to an amazing holiday with friends and family!

Til next year, Chag Sukkot Sameach!

And Another Year Makes 12! (Quinn's Newsletter)

Dear Quinn,

It’s already been a month since your 12^th birthday, and I’m just sitting down to write this letter to you about what you’re up to at 12 years old. I’m terribly late because, well, it’s been a busy month. It’s been a busy summer – a busy year at that! We just moved from Chesterwood to Lakedale, we have been prepping for Sukkot, and we’re taking a trip to California to visit Disneyland and Universal Hollywood very soon! We’ve been trying to sell the house on Chesterwood while still unpacking at Lakedale; you and your brothers are all in different schools, and our commute is a little farther now (not our backyard anymore!). So, please forgive me for the late update, but better late than never, right? So let me get on with the update!

 

What are you up to at 12-years-old?

 

-You’re a middle schooler now! We’re 9 weeks in to the school year, and you secured all A’s this grading period. It wasn’t easy and has come with quite a few hiccups and roadblocks, but you have learned and grown through them! You don’t love your PACE teacher, Ms. M. She’s harsh and seems to have it in for the boys in her class. You can’t stand how she sayd “m’kay” all the time, and you are feeling like everything you do in there is busy work or extra assignments. You definitely miss Mrs. Swearingen! You’ve been considering dropping PACE, and I’m totally fine with that, but I also don’t want you to be run off by a teacher’s poor personality. Percussion has been a challenge as well. While you’re getting high grades, it’s a lot of work and requires a lot of practice daily. You’ve even gotten a few zeroes for not turning work in on time (not even half-credit is given!), but you seem to have learned and have gotten in a groove at this point. Even with two zeroes, you still have an A, so obviously, you’re mastering the skills needed. Rice has proven to be more academically challenging than Frankford was for Banner, so all-in-all, I think it’s the better school. But your anxiety and stress level have taken a hit, so I sometimes wonder if it’s a fit. Mostly, though, I think it’s just the learning curve of middle school and not being at Hightower anymore. That transition was tricky, but you seem to have meandered through it okay. Your favorite teacher is your ELAR teacher, Mr. Helms, and you like to get to school early these past few weeks so you can meet up with friends before the first bell.

 

-You have great friends: Myles, Arnika, Harper, Ryan, Drew, Jude, Bryson, and have made some new friends, too! I don’t remember all their names as they are pretty new to me, but I know you’ve made some buddies that have eased the transition to Rice.

 

-You love: Tyler, the Creator; eating; baking; soft drinks; playing on your phone (Grow a Garden, Clash Royale) or on your PC; inventing new recipes; popcorn; Slurpees; reading; playing with Tova; swimming; learning new jokes; baseball; staying up late; giggling after lights out with Knox who likes to sleep in your bed or at least in the same room with you every night; GFC; wearing pajamas or anything oversized that you can snuggle up in; staying home; YouTube shorts and finding all kinds of silly videos/memes

 

-You’re definitely becoming a little teenager. You are distracted by your phone – having misplaced a few things because you were paying more attention to your phone than what you were doing and therefore can’t remember where you put something or if you did that task you were asked to. It’s easy for you to blame others when you’re the guilty party because you don’t like to make mistakes. We know you don’t do things “on purpose,” but you often times don’t like to admit your errors either.

 

-We have the best talks. You continue to be curious and inquisitive about the world, current events, politics, laws, relationships, nature, religions, and so many other things. I love our talks. We read The Giver this past month, and the conversations that came from that book were stellar. After we finished the book, we watched the movie, and you were very observant about the similarities to and differences from the book.

 

-You had pneumonia a second time a few weeks after returning from camp, and a few weeks later, you had strep. We thought with your tonsillectomy last year, maybe you'd be in the clear from all this illness crap, but alas, nope! 

-You love to talk and tell us all the details of your day. I hope this never changes!

-You're playing baseball with the RoughRiders again. I absolutely love this team and Coach Jerod. After getting hit pretty hard (enough to leave the stitches imprinted) with the ball last season, you have had a bad case of the Yips! It's been hard to get you back into the "swing" (literally!) of things. You have seemingly finally overcome this and have started swinging the bat again instead of just backing out of the box or ducking when the pitch is thrown. Your anxiety is subsiding as the new season gets under way. As River's mom, Victoria, says, "If he can overcome this, it will be truly amazing!" She's right. It will be such a big accomplishment for you - to know you can push through the fear and beat it! 

-You can be quick to blame others (the ump, the teacher, other kids) for your mistakes, but you're aware that you do it, and we are trying to help you own when you could have studied more, listened better, or played harder. You feel disappointment very deeply and sometimes it's just easier to blame others and not own that you may have played a role in the outcome. "Knox did it first," or "That ump doesn't know what he's doing!" or "The teacher never told us to turn the work in." You're learning to turn those around to "yeah, I shouldn't have .  .  ." or "I could have . . . . "

-You had a great well check with Dr. B. You are a healthy kid, just a little on the heavy side: 55th percentile for height, but 95th percentile for weight. Nothing "wrong," just need to be more diligent about watching how much sugar and junk you're eating. You are our best eater, though - loving your veggies, fruits, milk, and proteins! But, like both your parents, you enjoy eating!

-We celebrated your birthday at our new house. You wanted to invite friends and cousins over to swim and watch a movie (KPOP Demon Hunters). It was a lot of kids in one house and loud and messy - but it was a lot of fun! 

Quinn Redding, you are such a delight. You always have been. The coming years will be a big transition as you enter your teen years. I hope you know that Dad and I are always here for you, supporting you and wanting the best for you. I hope you never lose your sense of curiosity, your ability to share your feelings openly, your desire to cuddle and be close to us, your sense of humor, your willingness to be brave and try new things, your ability to think things through and make wise choices. You have always seemed to "have your head on straight," as Grandma would say, knowing the consequences of your actions and being able to maturely reason. You're definitely still a kid and quickly becoming a hormonal, discombobulated teen - but you are an "old soul" and often wise beyond your years. I simply couldn't love you more - and because you might over-analyze that idiom, it means I "CAN'T" not I "WON'T!" There just is no higher limit to my love for you, My Love. 

I wish you the happiest (belated now) birthday! May your year be amazing and all you ever want it to be!

I love you so very much, Quinny-Quinn!

Love,

Mom

Last photo as an 11-year-old

"I Believe" - Goodbye 11!

L to R: Nico, you, Drew, Myles, Derek (can't see his face), Ryan,
Bryson, Knox, Luca, Levi, Hayla, and Asher in front