Every holiday season, Shalom Lamm would bring his kids down to the kitchen to bake some of his childhood favorites from babka to rugelach. Chocolate cinnamon rugelach with some coffee to wash it down to be exact. These delights are a balanced combination of cream cheese and butter dough filled with nuts, jams, or as he likes it chocolate and cinnamon paste covered by an egg wash and baked till golden brown. It was their favorite part of the day as they were at their happiest together. No one was more important, each played a part. Youngest on getting the ingredients, middle on filling, oldest on the dough, and Lamm on oven duty.

Shalom Lamm proceeds to call for his wife to come down from upstairs to get the kids cleaned up so he can let his friends in. The house soon flooded with laughter. Each friend brought a dish.

The table became so crowded no one could turn without bumping into someone else. Friends were no longer strangers, more so family. It was as it should be.

His wife grabbed the Chocolate Cinnamon Rugelach from the kitchen towards the end of dinner, began to pass them out then gave the bowl to the furthest person she could reach without dropping the bowl and had the bowl go around. There was enough for everyone to have two. It was like he knew they were coming.

This simple night became a way of life for Lamm and his family.