The Big House by the Park: The Circle of the Year

NEW YEAR'S DAY

New Year's Day. Mia Bella comes to visit.

And decides to stay!

Leah tries out the new sled that Santa Claus brought!

Smooth sledding!

Oh, no! Snow down her collar!

PURIM

Gila dressed up as Queen Esther, with her grogger and hamentaschen.

VALENTINE'S DAY

It is Valentine’s Day, and Savannah surprised her sweetheart, Liesel Elizabeth, with a little party for just the two of them. She made a chocolate layer cake with white frosting, and a big pot of hot chocolate.

“How thoughtful, dear,” said Liesel Elizabeth, “Here is a Valentine for you!”

“And, would you believe it? I have one for you!”

“The cake is scrumptious, Savannah!”

“I should hope so, I put an awful lot of love into it.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day, dear. You are the best sweetheart ever.”

“That’s just what I was going to say.”

PASSOVER

Passover preparations in the kitchen, Gila at the stove, Jane grating potatoes for kugel, and Nellie dicing apples for charoset.

How different this night is from all other nights! Passover Seder with Gila, Samantha, and Leah.

EASTER

Easter Morning dawned chilly and damp, so the girls discovered that the Easter Bunny had hidden eggs all over the downstairs of the house. After finding eggs in the parlor and dining room, the girls moved on to the library.

Nellie found and egg in the large bookcase.

Samantha found an easy one on the table but neglected to look any further.

Julia headed straight for the lamp. The Easter Bunny had hidden eggs there previously.

Nellie found a big chocolate egg wrapped in gold foil. The Easter Bunny had clearly patronized the finest chocolatier in Manhattan!

Julia found another one, but she had to stand on a chair to reach it!

The three of them spotted another big chocolate egg at the same time and made a dash for it!

Samantha got it! How clever of the Easter Bunny to work it out that there was one chocolate egg for each of them!

MAY DAY

"Nellie," cried Jane, "an thou wilt play a sprightly jig upon thy pipe, I shall dance the Morris upon the greensward, and foot it lustily about!"

INDEPENDENCE DAY

Samantha, Jane, and Julia wish you a Safe and Sane Fourth of July from Piney Point.

SUKKOS (1904 PRONUNCIATION)

It was Friday, September twenty-third, 1904, and Gila and Jane were working hard, building their shukkah. They had to get it finished by sundown; not only was it the first night of the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkos, but Shabbas as well. Jane knew it as the Feast of Tabernacles. The sukkah had to have at least three walls, made of wood no longer growing in the ground, and the braches overhead had to provide more shade than sun, yet you should still be able to see the stars.

When the sukkah was finished and decorated, Clarice joined them for the celebration and helped them get everything ready to bless it. There were lots of blessings at Sukkos - for the candles, the sukkah, the new season, the wine, the lulav, and the bread! Then they all took turns holding a big citron, called the esrog, and shaking the lulav, a bundle of palm, willow, and myrtle, in every direction. “I do not know what the meaning of this is,” said Gila, “but my grandmother told me we do it to ensure rain in good measure next season.”

A time to feast on the bounty of the harvest!

HALLOWE'EN

"Since it is neither Popery nor witchcraft," said Jane, "I will got Trick-or-Treating, but I will have but a visor and cloak to my disguise."

Jane's big spunky carved from a pompion.

THANKSGIVING

Come, ye thankful people, come! Liesel Elizabeth as the Thanksgiving Pilgrim Girl

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing!

Thanksgivukah - It won't happen again for 70,000 years!

ST. LUCIA'S DAY

Clarice awakens Katherine Alyse with saffron buns. (St. Lucia is the patron saint of eye problems, and Clarice was just back from having an eye transplant, so it was only fitting that she play St. Lucia that year.)