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Christmas Morning

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Every year, Elliot and I volunteer together at the Original Pancake House in Bethesda on Christmas morning, which serves hot breakfast to the homeless. Elliot spends his time cooking, and I have taken charge of the “gift” table – we give out a bag of toiletries to every person who comes in, along with warm clothing – gloves, hats, jackets when we have them, sweaters, sweatshirts, thermal socks. Through lots of hard work, Elliot and I managed to get the toiletries together and bagged for over 400 people. I sit on the board of a youth group, and the board there really helped us gather some supplies, and one of the chapters bagged about 150 or more bags for us. Elliot managed to get a vendor to provide us with some extra toiletries that were unclaimed from FEMA, and my cousin, who works at a Marriott hotel, managed to get us 300 bars of soap and 300 shampoos. We also used cash to buy gloves, socks, and sweatshirts, and we got about 6 boxes of sweatshirts and jackets donated from a vendor. Here were all the goodies Elliot & I brought that morning:


We distributed EVERYTHING, and the recipients were so thankful. It was a fantastic way to spend our Christmas morning.

Jewish Christmas

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Well, we do not celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense, but Christmas for us is still a time to celebrate. Every year, Elliot & I volunteer on Christmas Day at The Original Pancake House where they feed over 300 homeless people. Elliot works in the kitchen cooking pancakes, eggs, and bacon (we always find it funny that the guy who keeps kosher cooks the bacon). I usually work the “gift” table, and this year I arranged for 300 bags of toiletries to give out to all the people who came to eat. We also raise funds to buy hats/scarves/sweatshirts, and we collect donations of clothing, jackets, gloves, etc. and give those out to people who need them.

This year, we weren’t sure if we would be able to volunteer – Micah could have been born much later making it impossible for us to attend. Instead, he arrived nice and early, and my mother graciously agreed to come babysit for a few hours so I could run down the street and volunteer. Micah and his Grammy spent the day napping on the couch together, and Elliot & I got to volunteer. I was only able to stay for 2 hours, but it was so nice to go and participate. One of the women (a Russian lady) yelled at me for abandoning my son to work, but everyone else couldn’t believe I was out so soon. It felt good to see this project through, and I’m so glad I could be there!



After volunteering, we went to eat at my cousin Michelle’s house. We don’t celebrate Christmas, but since everyone is off of work, it is a great time for the family to gather. We ate potato latkes and lit the Chanukah candles, and we generally had a good time and relaxed. Elliot’s brother, SIL, niece and nephew were passing through town, so we had a quick visit with them as well. All in all, it was a great day, and Micah was wonderful!