Hanukkah

David and I talked last year about teaching the girls about Hanukkah, Kwanza, and 3 Kings Day. Well, we decided this would be the year we did it. I didn't have much time to prepare since Hanukkah was almost over and I work now. We did order a Hanukkah book from Kadence's school book order which talked about the traditions of Hanukkah. The girls liked the book and loved learning about Hanukkah. We have a movie called Elmo's World Happy Holidays that teaches about a lot of different Holidays and Hanukkah is one of them so they were already familiar with some of the traditions. We spent most of the day trying to find a menorah with no success. I did however find some dreidels.

Here we're getting ready to read our Hanukkah book

Here is my best attempt at a menorah with such little notice. I couldn't find one anywhere, but Kadence knew we were supposed to put candles in the window. (Thanks Elmo!) While I was at Joannes they had some suction cup candle holders. I figured I would just suction them into place on the window....wrong! The window was too cold so the suction cups wouldn't stick. Not to mention The candles that were next to the holders were too little and just fell right through. I had to hot glue each holder closed so that the candle wouldn't fall onto the ground. I then had to just rest the candles on the edge of the windowsill. Then out for fear of being offensive to anyone who is Jewish I had to find a way to put one candle up higher than the rest. (The shamash) This candle is the one used to light the rest and is supposed to be either higher or lower than the rest of the candles. Needless to say, I will soon be purchasing a menorah for next year. We used chocolate coins to put "in the pot" for our game of dreidel. The girls loved it and didn't mind giving their candy to the pile. I thought they would eat it.

Kadence's turn!

Shelby watching it spin

The girls singing "dreidel, dreidel, dreidel"

Shelby's turn!

Time for Hanukkah presents!!

Here is Kadence carefully unwrapping her present.

Here's Shelby ripping right through her present

Shelby watched daddy open his present. I found him one of his favorite movies: Eight Crazy Nights. It was the only one Hastings had left and they had to hold it for me. I forgot how funny the movie is, but definately not a movie for the kids.

The girls reading their new books

To end our night of Hanukkah, David made potato Latkes. I was skeptical, but they are SO good. They are just potatoe pancake and so tasty. He did a great job!

We had tons of fun, and although I will be changing a few things for next year it seemed to be a success. Eventually we will celebrate more than just one night. Plus this experience taught me to start looking for my Kenorah now for Kwanza!