Channukah Day 1 & 2
OK a little background info is in order. Two factors are affecting our Channukah this year:
1. The house is literally over-run with toys. The kids never throw (or give) away anything, and they don’t put them away either. Yeah, I know, I’m whining, but the point is – they’ve all three been given an ultimatum: throw (or give) away 80% of your toys, and put away the rest, or they don’t get to open any.
2. The crazy, cyclical financial services market conditions mean that this is a "down" year for Mike. We’re not going broke, or anything that rash, but we’ll certainly be taking things a bit more "low key" this year.
That means that we don’t have our usual pile of gifts for the kids, and the small pile that has arrived from relatives will wait until they can do something besides sit and watch T.V. or play computer games.
That said, we’re still celebrating Channukah. There’s still the lights, the gelt, the dreidles, and the latkes. We’ll also be having our famous family get-together this Saturday.
So here’s what’s happened so far: Evening 1 (first candle lighting), we didn’t light. Mainly because we cleaned up the living room for the event, then the kids tore it apart again (literally).
Day 1 / Second candle lighting: We lit candles, and Aaron got enough of his room cleaned up to earn a present. Since we haven’t purchased them any yet, Aaron opened Nana’s. Pictures will be posted shortly and I’ll post the link here.
Mike and Marla, who of course keep their room clean :), also opened a present from Nana. Thanks, Nana!
Today is Day 2 (candle lighting 3), I’ll post about it (and maybe get the pictures up) later tonight.