Hanukkah’s ending tonight, but I’m considering it a victory so far.

It’s not that I think that the Monster understands what the holiday is about, or that he looks forward to the holiday coming through.  Or that he’s really getting the blessings down in a manner that’s going to survive to next year’s recitation.

No, this year’s victory is that he’s not trying to blow out the candles.

Last time I wrote about this, two years ago, the Monster was trying to blow out the candles every time we lit them.  Even last year, there was a lot of talk about the fact that “these are candles we look at, not blow out,” but the timing of the holidays last year also had us not quite consistent about making sure that we lit candles every evening.

We’ve made it through seven nights without him making an attempt to blow out the candles, even though they look very much like birthday candles.  He’s coming over and at least standing quietly when we’re doing the blessings, and then he’s been good about leaving the hanukkiah alone afterwards.

I do know that he knows, somewhere in his head, the blessings, so there’s always the chance that he’ll sing along with them one of these days.  The fact that we’ve made progress from when he’d have no clue about what to do says a lot.  Little steps with the holidays, one after another…