You've already read about the start of our Chanukah celebrations
here, but I wanted to tell you about a few more of them. As you may remember we don't do Elf on the Shelf around here, instead we do Mensch on the Mantle. You can read more about how this got started
here.
This year both Sam and Rachel were really excited to find the mensches every morning and then kind of ignored them after that.
Rachel has really enjoyed her Chanukah present of princess dresses from Dave's parents. She has them all divided up by outfit and wears them a lot!
The day that Sam had his doctor's appointment, the mensches were taking care of each other in the hospital!
Saturday was our big Chanukah gathering with friends of Dave's family. This year it was hosted by his parents. One of the activities was a latke making contest and everyone had to bring different kinds of latkes for the competition.
We solved the smoke detector issue by having Dave use the griddle outside. It worked really well and as the kids and I were coming back from a walk we could smell the latkes from a block away.
On Saturday we also did some dreidel painting. This was a Pinterest idea (of course!) and the kids really enjoyed it. They gave their pictures to Dave's parents.
All the latkes for the competition. Rachel insisted on filling out a ballot but only for our latkes! Ha!
It was so pretty to see all the menorahs lit for the seventh night of Chanukah.
And then on the last night of Chanukah we lit all our candles. We actually cheated and had the eighth night of Chanukah twice because Dave had a task to do (determined by someone else) on the actual eighth night. So on Monday, we lit our candles again, gave the kids the movie Frozen, and watched it all together. It was a perfect evening. (And no, we hadn't owned Frozen before this and had each only seen it once before!)
And interfaith life means that the Chanukah candles are burning beside the nativity set, which is still "arranged" by Rachel. Interfaith life also means that tonight our care group from church is coming over to celebrate Chanukah! This means that one of the craziest games of driedel of the season will be happening. Whoo hoo!
I hope everyone has a good weekend! Our weekend is going to be great because, besides the crazy Chanukah party tonight, OMA AND OPA are
arriving tomorrow arriving in time for the care group Chanukah party because they've made GREAT driving time and we're getting our Christmas tree tomorrow and it is 100% full on excitement around here!!!!!!! Yay!!!
Yay for a fun hanukkah! Is your menorah a "tree of life" one? Adam is tired of our wooden one and on a mission to get a new menorah for next year.
ReplyDelete(Also, we cheat and do the menorah every morning because Adam isn't home at night)
The candles are so beautiful. So glad things are going well.
ReplyDeleteI've watched the first thirty minutes of Frozen many times but have never watched it all the way through...lol.
I forgot about your Mensch on the Mantle! Made me smile. :D
ReplyDeleteLooks like you all had a great Chanukah! I think I'm going to have to try latkes sometime.
ReplyDeleteI love the dreidel painting! I don't think I've seen it before. I'll need to remember that for when Elley is older.
ReplyDeleteI know I am commenting on this way after the fact, but you guys make celebrating Chanukah sound so fun. I keep thinking when I read about your celebration that I am going to get a menorah and participate with our kids every year. I just think it would be great to teach them about this part of the Jewish faith, and I think it would be a nice addition to the Christmas season. So Happy "very late" Chanukah!
ReplyDelete