Holiday Conversations

Nathan came home with a dreidel the other afternoon from his friend Yuli from Israel. We didn't talk much about it at the time because after he took it out of his backpack, younger sister number 1 snatched it away resulting in a pushing and shoving match requiring the dreidel to go into time out for the evening.
Last night the dreidel ended up in our bed and after I took it away from Sarah and turned out the lights for sleep, Nathan started talking about how Yuli had taught his class a game to play with the dreidel. He started telling me the different rules through yawns and then turned over to go to sleep. (He was exhausted after a busy and long week at school and a play date yesterday afternoon). I was repeating back to him the rules of the game when he turned over and looked at me and with only slight irritation in his voice said, "It's complicated, Mom".
"Oh, okay. Good night, Buddy". He was asleep in seconds.
This morning as we were driving to school in the dark Nathan commented that there are not a lot of Christmas lights up in our neighborhood. I agreed. He then went on to say, "Perhaps our neighbors are celebrating Hanukkah first and then they will put up their Christmas lights. I saw a Menorah in that window just over there."
I told him that he was right, that some families are Jewish and Christian and will celebrate both holidays. He went on to tell me that he already knew that because his friend, Cyril, told the class that his family is just special enough to celebrate both. Because at this point, my child is much more educated on the celebration of Hanukkah, I decided to do a little reading today so that I can better answer any questions he might have. I found this link and did a little learning today. (Much more helpful than that Friends episode going through my head where Ross dresses up like the Holiday Armadillo to help Ben understand the meaning of Hanukkah wouldn't you say?)