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Although it had never been on the top of the things he liked to do, Phillip did have to admit he actually liked going to temple for Hanukah with his family. Granted by the end of the night, he and his siblings were all at each other’s throats, the rare times they weren’t were actually enjoyable. In addition, Claire, his longtime girlfriend, was always there, and having her made anything better.
This year, a major blizzard had rolled through the city, and travel anywhere, let alone back home to Elmsbrook was out of the question.
“I can’t believe you guys aren’t able to come up this year,” his mother, Hilary, bemoaned at him from her office. Although none of the Altman siblings were able to be there in person, their mother had insisted they do a group video chat to “at least see each other.”
“Well, that’s Mother Nature for you,” Paul, one of Phillip’s older brothers said.
Phillip nodded with a grin. “Yeah, she can be one mean mother…”
“Phillip!” Claire called out to him from the living room of their high-rise apartment.
“Thank you, Claire,” Hilary called to her as Wendy and Jude, his other siblings, just laughed. Paul chuckled.
“Anyway, hopefully, we’ll be there for Purim or Passover,” Jude said. “I should be able to get some time off.”
“Wonderful,” Hillary said. “It will be so wonderful to have all my children in one place.”
“Yeah, it’ll be great,” Paul said, clearly not looking forward to the idea of all of them together.
“Jeez Paul, you don’t have to sound so excited,” Wendy remarked.
“I’m tired,” he curtly replied. “Some of us are busy this time of year.”
“Sure you are,” Philip quipped. Paul glared at him. “Oh come on. I know all about you and Annie’s issues. Shit, she’s been calling Claire enough about them in the past few weeks.”
“And with that, I’m going to log off,” Paul said. “Bye, Mom. I’ll call you later.” He hung up as did everyone else.
“Well that went well as could be expected,” remarked Philip as he plopped down on the couch.
“Paul and Annie still can’t conceive?” Claire asked casually.
“Nope. I still don’t get why she’s calling you about all that shit. Why not talk to her doctor or whoever she deals with.”
“Same reason why everyone asks you about computer stuff: I’m a med student. People think once I tell them I’m a med student, I can help them with any medical problem they have, even if it’s not my area.”
She was right there. “I suppose that’s one good thing about this fucking blizzard. I won’t have to be my brother’s personal tech support. I swear the last time Paul had me take a look at his computer, I found his porn search history.”
“That must have been awkward,” Claire said.
“Not as awkward as when my dad tried to have the talk with me.”
“Beats the one I had. I swear Catholics and the sex talk is a recipe for disaster.”
Phillip just laughed. He knew all too well the stuff Claire had to deal with growing up Catholic. Luckily, she made it through relatively normal, at least more than others had.
“I will say, I am going to miss your mom’s kugel,” Claire said as she leaned against his shoulder.
“Yeah, no one makes it like her,” reminisced Philip. “I admit, I am going to miss celebrating Hanukkah at home. We didn’t celebrate a whole lot of Jewish holidays or go to temple a lot, but when we did, I did like going.”
Claire smiled. “Yeah, they say that things you hated as a kid, you have a new outlook on when you’re older.”
Philip nodded. He took her hand in his, kissing the back of it. “And now, I get to do new stuff with you.”
“Yes you do,” she said as she snuggled against his chest. She couldn’t wait for what the future had for them.