Our cousin Jeff wrote to me this afternoon to wish Andrew well and to say mazel tov (Yiddish for congratulations) on our milestone or "milstein." I immediately looked up the word milstein and found that while the Scrabble dictionary won't claim the word, Mil is of Latin origin and represents lengths, and stein in German and Norwegian means stone.
Milstein is my mother's maiden name. And the Milsteins definitely know how to celebrate a milestone. Births, Bar Mitzvahs, Weddings, Anniversaries are all simchas you'll find my mom and her three sisters -- Auntie Shirley, Auntie Bobbie and Auntie Arlene. In fact, when Andrew was born and it was time for his Bris, these three lovely ladies weathered the weather and made their way to Minneapolis to share in our simcha.
Here's why I think they are so special.
Andrew was born via emergency C-Section and I was given very potent, pain killing drugs. I guess I was supposed to stop taking the meds when we got home from the hospital, but I didn't know that until the nurse came for the post-hospital visit and encouraged me to switch over to Tylenol. Apparently, Andrew and I looked like space cadets. What's more, Andrew must have had the extreme munchies because the nurse said the kid had gained a healthy amount of weight. Then she remarked that he must be having thanksgiving dinner at every meal!
So while I was incessantly feeding my new little bundle, and visualizing Lucy in the sky with diamonds, my wonderful Aunts offered to help tidy the house for the Bris. We were having 80 of our closest friends and family in our house for the service and a light lunch. With toilet want in hand, and the instruction manual to the central vac, my three aunts set off to scrub the tub and vac up the rug.
We don't have a central vacuum anymore because the hose is a real pain. It's hard to manage. Most of the time it's like an uncontrollable fire hose that pulls in anything in its path. The thing came with the house, and we stopped using it once Andrew was born for fear he would get sucked up into the hose, like Agustus Glupe in Willie Wonka in the Chocolate Factory.
My Aunts are strong women, and I'm very proud to say they tamed that shrewd beast of a carpet cleaner. To listen to them you would have thought they were tickling the thing into submission. For those of you who haven't met my Aunts, you should know they are gigglers. Gigglers with a capital G. So for over an hour I heard the swish of our sweeper, velocity of our vacuum, and hysterical giggles coming from all three of them. The house looked amazing, and perfectly pristine when the Bris crowd took over.
Needless to say, the cleaning ladies who came to our house this week did a terrific job. However, their humor doesn't hold candle to the contagious craziness that my three Aunts can bring on.
We feel so blessed to have the entire Milstein contingent join us for our simcha -- whether that is here in Minneapolis, or from a far cheering Andrew along! We love you all very, very much! Here's to Andrew's milestone....er eh, Milstein.
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