Famille Du Pentium

Tonight is the last candle lighting.  This is always a bittersweet evening,  because it means Hanukkah is almost over (it goes until sundown tomorrow) but it’s also the night that we have nine candles blazing in each menorah.  It gives true meaning to the “Festival of Lights”.

Hanukkah - Festival of Lights

The kids even have their own menorah to “light” – they push a button!

The Kids Menorah

The full set of pics are HERE.  We hope everyone had a happy Hanukkah, or whatever December-themed holiday you celebrate!

Sigh.  Today was supposed tobe the day that we did our Hanukkah party, but due to a scheduling problem, we didn’t.  🙁

So, no Latkes this week.  There is going to be a party at Marla’s folks place next weekend (after Hanukkah is over) so hopefully I will get my latke fill then.

Anyway, so today, in honor of our failed attempt to host a family party, we sat around and did nothing.  Eventually, the frenetic un-busynesss got to us and we had to take a break and go eat pizza at Edwardo’s.  Then we came home and lit candles.  Hurray!  More Blue Ray movies for our PS3!  I’m gonna watch Wall-E tonight.

Here’s the pics.

Having just gotten back from our little winter outing, we were exhausted.  We lit candles and then watched T.V. and later went to bed.  Pics are here.

As I previously posted, we spent the last two nights at Key Lime Cove in Gurnee, Illinois.   This is an indoor water park, hotel and resort similar to waterparks in Wisconsin Dells, only closer.   I’ve got a review of our stay, and some pictures.  This is going to be a somewhat long post, so click below to read it all.

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We are, as they say, blowing this popsicle stand.  For the next two nights, we will be hanging out at Key Lime Cove, an indoor water park near Gurnee Mills.  You won’t see posts or pics updates until we get back, but we will have our camera there.

Happy 25th of December, for those who celebrate that!

Snow, snow, everywhere snow.  Except in the warm Humphries-Dolnick house, where we lit candles for the third night.

Aaron got a comforter, which he immediately wrapped himself under:

Aaron Comforter

And is it my imagination, or does Justin always look like this in Hanukkah pictures?:

Justin Excited

The rest of the pictures are available HERE.

Peace on earth, good will toward men.

Seems like everyone in the US has either gotten, or is getting snow.  For those of us here in the midwest, this isn’t big news.  But for people stuck in Seattle, or Las Vegas it’s huge.

Admittedly, the six inches we just got today on top of the roughly 12 inches that have accumulated over the last week isn’t affecting us much.  But everyone seems to be posting snow pictures on their blogs, so I feel I must also.   First is a picture of our back yard from the back door:

Snow - back

The next one is of our street, out front, from the same vantage point.  It’s hard to see it in the picture, but there’s about 2-3 feet of snow along the curblines.  This is a neat effect we get here in snow plow states, where the snow actually gets higher off the streets because the snow plows throw it there.

Snow - Street

Now if you look at that front minivan closely, you’ll notice:

…that the windshield wipers are “up”.  This is the start of a series of “You Might be From Illinois” questions… why are those wiper blades sticking up like that?

To keep the wipers from freezing to the windshield overnight.  Seriously.

Here’s what Dad and Justin did after the Hanukkah festivities on the first night…

Dad & Justin Nap

And here’s Justin up close…

Justin Out Cold

Now that’s what Hanukkah’s all about, I say! 🙂

Tonight was “open Nana’s presents” night …

My mom, bless her heart, lights candles every night of Hanukkah, largely because I converted to Judaism and her grandkids light candles around the same time as her.  There’s certainly a story behind Hanukkah, and I’m sure my Mom knows the story, but the point is that she’s lighting candles on the same night that her grand kids are lighting candles, and that’s what matters.

So here’s hoping we all had a very warm and happy Hanukkah Day 2… pictures HERE.

Yay! Hanukkah is here.

We tend to think a lot about Hanukkah as being a “December-themed” holiday, or the Jewish version of Christmas.  But we rarely actually think about why we celebrate Hanukkah.  Tonight, while I was once again busy downloading the blessings over the first candle lighting, Marla – always the early childhood teacher – was doing a bang-up job of teaching the kids about what Hanukkah is really about.  And now I will relay the story to you.  The story, and links to the pictures, after the jump…

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