Hanuka Highlights

The last two nights of Chanuka are upon us. And yes, I know I spell this holiday as many ways as there are nights. That's part of the fun.

We've had a great week, and it's especially exciting to watch Eitan celebrate this year when he really seems to get what's going on- at least infinitely more than last year. Here's a taste of what we've been up to. And I use taste very intentionally as this holiday for us has really a lot been about the deliciously unhealthy food as much as I've been trying to stay on a healthy post-baby-pre-wedding diet.

Year two making latkes from scratch. I forgot to take a picture of them once they were done. Perhaps because they were gobbled up as soon as they came out of the frying pan (courtesy of the tag team of Nina and Eitan).

On Sunday night we hosted the K-baum siblings for a night of fun.

 The Jewish Santa Claus award goes to Hudy and Debra for the awesome t-shirts for Lev (which will be featured and pointed out in later posts) and a bowling set for Eitan

The best sport award goes to Uncle Yosef for still kissing baby after getting projectile vomited on.

And the sweet award goes to Nina for bringing the Roladin sufganiot. She bought one of each of the 11 flavors they're offering this year.

And the dummy award I guess goes to me for forgetting to take a family picture of the siblings. We'll have plenty more opportunities with the upcoming wedding festivities I console myself with.

Another night we went to Nina's apartment 

And on a very rainy day we did crafts. Eitan and Daddy colored and put together driedels and I did some crocheting and made Nina a picture for her wall with paint chip samples.

Oh and had more sufganiot- this time from our little Emek branch of Neeman pastries. They were as delicious as they are beautiful. The one on the right is Irish creme flavored and the cream inside was unreal, tasted like a shot of baileys, but creamy and frosting-y. So good. The middle one was also such a piece of art, both from the top and also once sliced. This holiday kills me.

So tonight is Shabbat and we're winding down Chanuka 2012. Tomorrow night we will have to get one more round of sufganiot as they really disappear from stores the day after Chanuka as we learned a bit harshly last year (I wasn't ready!!). Latkes, we've had our fill of- I'd rather eat french fries or baked potatoes anyways, but sufganiot, you will be missed. But on the other hand my cholesterol level may return to normal, so that's good.

This year we've learned a whole bunch of Israeli insider Chanuka stuff thanks to Eitan's school. The Israeli lingo for this holiday is different here and back home. Apparently, most of our Chanuka terms are Yiddish; menorah, latke, dreidel, and here they use Chanukia, levivot and sivivon.  And I do think it's a good unifier that the one term we did come to this country knowing is the same in the US- sufganiot. Thank god. Also, they have different songs here. I mean, I guess it makes sense that "I have a little driedel" isn't in the canon of songs that all Israeli children know. One song we learned has Eitan's name in it- super exciting. Here's a techno version, the song is Banu Choshech. 

So that's been our Chanuka in Jerusalem, year two.

Chag Sameach!