Chag sameach! May your holiday be full of light, warmth, and peace.
We had a very nice candle lighting via Skype with DS in Seattle. While he was out shopping this afternoon he ran into Chabad of Queen Anne, who were giving out menorahs, candles, gelt, latkes, dreidels, light up menorah necklaces, and also had a giant dreidel on stilts.
It was nice to see all my kids texting photos of their lighted menorahs.
light, kindness, peace
I made H chicken tacos fried in oil.
I don’t light a menorah when DD isn’t home, and she had to work 3-11 today-tonight anyway. But I made latkes and they were really good! I ate too many, and then packed the rest away–will give them to a Jewish professor tomorrow when I go to class. Meanwhile I sort of appreciate this article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/01/opinion/sunday/the-hypocrisy-of-hanukkah.html
Read it all the way through to the end, and Happy Chanukah!
Chag sameach! We had (did? not sure what verb to use) a google hangout with Ds, two of whom are across the country. We try as many of the nights as we can. We said the prayer and the Shehecheyanu and each of us light a menorah then each of the girls opened a gift. We started the tradition when oldest D went to college. I love Hanukah and the closeness it brings.
It was so nice to send my son pictures of our small preliminary Hanukkah dinner, and he replied with a picture of his lit Menorah. There was a lit Xmas tree in the background. Their future.
We Skype our Seder, but I’d never thought of doing that for the menorah lighting. What a great idea! We’ll have latkes of course. S1 said they had latkes last night - first time GD got to partake. We’ll invite S2 to join us some time this week.
Chag sameach everyone.
DS#1 and his family attended an extended family Chanukah party with his wife’s family friends. It’s a tradition and fun to see a photo of the next generation of kids (now 7 of them) at the party.
Was pleased to see that DS#2 send Chanukah greetings (his wife isn’t Jewish). Our gift to them is handling the lodging for an upcoming family ski weekend. Having them together is their gift to us!
We lit the menorah and sent the pictures of that to our kids. Can’t seem to get them to do this while they are away at school but both appreciate it. I send one every night.
Happy Hanukkah!
I was raised in a mixed family. My mom, Jewish. My dad, Catholic. We were basically raised Catholic with small references to Judaism. Now as adults we have more of a mix going on. One brother married Jewish and celebrates the season. D is dating a guy who also celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas (mixed parents too). My kids are now interested in learning about all religions and appreciate having both in their lives.
BTW, my brother who is quite the cook swears by frying latkes in his good waffle maker. They look AMAZING!
We couldn’t find menorah candles anywhere yesterday - Checked CVS, Target, and went online to find our local Walmart didn’t have any. Fortunately we had enough leftover candles to last us through Wednesday (perhaps a miracle would let them last 8 nights!) and even found a full box of unusual but useable candles, so we are good. I also learned that I didn’t know the correct way to light them. I naturally placed the first candle to the left, because in my mind you read Hebrew from left to right. But a Youtube video explained you start placing candles on the right, but when you light the candles you start from the left. Go figure! so it’s, 8…7…6…5…S…4…3…2…1 but when lighting, you of course light the (S)hamus first and use it to light the others, but you light the others 4,3,2,1, for example on the 4th day. I didn’t know that, and in fact I don’t think we did it that way growing up, but I wouldn’t necessarily remember that detail.
I think you could find candles at BB&B, Bloomies, and the stores at local,synagogues.
We found candles at a paper papyrus type store.
Happy Chanukah to all of you celebrating!
Both DH and I are half-and-half. We love Hanukkah. No presents, just blessings and entries in our Hanukkah gratitude journal. Then, we sit around watching the candles burn in the window, talking memories, and trying to make whoever is the most stressed laugh.
Tonight, I wrote that I’m grateful that D19 will be with us for all eight nights next year (12/22 start). 