Why do we eat latkes? Because they’re cooked in oil, and Hanukkah is partly about one day worth of oil lasting eight nights. The oil was needed for eight nights in order to purify the temple. This is also why we eat donuts.
A laid back easy holiday today. We were lazy. We laid around the house until around 4:00 PM, then decided to go out to eat (Red Lobster has Surf & Turf on sale this week!) Of course, Aaron and I had to shovel snow first. Oh yeah, and we opened Nana’s presents, so take a look at tonight’s festivities.
Up tomorrow: we might go to a (public) Hanukkah Party at a local mall, or we might not. We might go sledding instead.  Or, we might be lazy :).
Good Shabbos and Happy Hanukkah! Yes, yes I’m posting a blog entry on Shabbos, but it was a very nice one indeed. Aaron made Shabbos dinner, we ate the fruit medley pie that baked all last night, and the kids opened toys. Sorry, Mom – we had to shuffle a bit to keep certain presents in order – yours will be opened tomorrow. Meanwhile, enjoy us as we enjoy Hanukkah!
During our recent trip to the UK, both Marla and I got hooked on afternoon tea.  Marla’s still drinking tea made “the right way” (no tea bags, through a strainer). So she was delighted she opened the GE Electric Kettle that I bought her.
The kids had fun, they’re busy putting together their Legos now. Soon it’ll be bedtime, back to school tomorrow! Next up, tomorrow we open Nana’s presents.
What a hectic first night. Marla and I had a meeting from 4 to 5 PM, so we figured… no problem! We’ll pick up the kids at 3, get them home, make sure they do their homework while I gather up the paperwork we needed, and then we’d be off to the meeting. Afterward, we planned to come home, fix dinner, light candles, and open presents. Ah, the great plans we had.
Instead, Ethan forgot his math book, so we had to rush him back to school before it closed to get it, then rush to the appointment to make it on time. Then the appointment went 40 minutes late, so no time to cook – had to pick up McDonalds. What a great meal for the first night of Hanukkah!
I realize that’s small fish in a big pond as far as problems go, but just a glimpse into our everyday lives.
We’ll be making the rounds, my family in Des Plaines and then Marla’s in Deerfield.
Then, come home and crash for a while before getting up for Black Friday. But don’t worry, I’m not going out in the crowds at 3:00 AM – just doing the online Black Friday thing this year.
I’ve created a new category – in the current theme, you can choose categories from the drop down menu at the left – so that you can view all family videos posted to this site from one page. You still need appropriate plug-ins to play YouTube videos, blah blah blah…
Here’s another (Spring-ish, 2010) video I found, entitled “Justin’s Happy Video”, taken by a a friend. This is one of the few I’m going to double-post: here (via YouTube) and Facebook, if you’re so inclined.