Zachary: The Novelization

Last night, we had a few friends over to help celebrate Chanukah. Grown ups and children alike had a really good time, with food (latkes of course; sufganiyot due to some heroic last minute search-and-rescue efforts by our friends J & S; salmon; and excellent salad and dessert dishes brought by our guests), good friends, and of course the post-dinner typical dividing of the genders to carry on further conversations about, well, guy and girl things.

Earlier in the day, a box had been waiting outside of our front door. It was addressed to Zachary and came from Apple Inc. I figured that either they were starting their recruiting of him a bit early, or that some Mac-themed gift was awaiting Zachary. We waited to open it until we'd lit the candles, and we were then astonished to open one (well, actually four copies) of the most creative and amazing gifts that we've ever seen -- Zachary's very own customized book!

"Zachary the Elephant Saves Hanukkah" (Selphy Press, 2007; likely ranked far higher on Amazon than my CD) is an incredible tale of courage and strength, of willfull pride replaced by dignified humility, of dramatic gastric culinary adventues, and of counting the treacherous digits of one through eight. And did I mention the flaming saganaki? But in all seriousness, this is a wonderful wonderful gift, written by Uncle Brian, with illustrations, design, and production by some phenomenal friends of Uncle Brian, and with stunningly concise editing accomplished by Aunt Jennifer. The book was thoroughly enjoyed by all present, including several surprising and excellently cunning references to friends who happened to be in attendance and reading along with us. Thank you thank you thank you to Brian, Jen, and friends J, G, and S!

Oh, and for those wondering why this came in an Apple-branded box, this is apparently a feature of Apple's iLife software; it supports printing books, who knew?

Today Zachary is 4 months old - it's unbelievable how quickly time passes with a baby. He has his next big checkup on Monday, so start placing your bets now as to height, weight, doctor/lawyer potential, etc.