Happy Hanukkah!

We've had a pretty full evening.  Tonight was the night that my hubby made his latkes!

He did an awesome job!  We had our traditional foods tonight - latkes and sufganiyot (doughnuts).  Not a highly nutritious meal but it's traditional Hanukkah foods and it's only one night a year.  My hubby and son did have some salad as well.  During the cooking of latkes, we lit our candles and my hubby said the blessings.  Then....while my hubby continued making latkes, the children and I ate latkes and played dreidels.  It was fun!

After we were all done eating (my hubby did eat dinner as well) and dishes were cleaned up, it was bon-bon time!  We decided to make the bon-bons together as a family instead of it just being the children and myself.  We really had fun!  Of course, the children and I both got to sample a bon-bon each.  The children enjoyed rolling the filling into little balls.  I think my daughter especially liked it because it was sooooo messy!  I put some powdered sugar on a piece of wax paper on the table for them to dab their hands in so that the filling mixture wouldn't stick all over their hands.  You should have seen the mess!  But they had fun!  My hubby and I coated the filling with the chocolate.  We also made some chocolate-coated marshmallows.  We did one batch of oreo filling and my hubby counted about 55 bon-bons!  We already have some friends that would like some so we're setting aside some out of this batch just for them!  I know they will be so happy!  We're probably going to make another batch some other day so that we can give some more away.  My hubby had fun arranging some of the bon-bons for a picture for me to share here on my blog.  I hope they turn out well because he really arranged them nicely!  I told him he might very well enjoy photography!  He also took a picture (or two or three...) of some latkes.  As of right now, my plan is to do a little slideshow thing of pictures from our 8 nights of celebration.  We'll have to get all the film developed onto a CD first.  Hopefully, we'll be able to do that by the first of next week!

Until tomorrow night....

We had a nice evening tonight.  We lit the candles and my hubby said the blessings.  We sat at the table and my hubby explained our candles for tonight.  We then had dinner.  After dinner was done and the dishes cleaned up, we went to the living room where we gave our gifts.  My daughter then read to us from another one of our Hanukkah books. 

We were unable to access our outline for our celebration at the time we needed.  My hubby knew the general idea of what the candles represented.  I will share with you what our outline says even though my hubby didn't say all the things from the outline.

Tonight,  the shamash candle still represented Jesus.  He has now risen from the grave and ascended to Heaven.  He is seated at the right hand of God.  He is now ruling and God's children have become the servants.  We had 7 candles lit altogether tonight.  The number 7 is representative of perfection in the Bible.  Through Jesus, we can be made perfect in God’s eyes because we have been clothed with Jesus when we are saved.

We can celebrate because our Savior lives!  So this turned out to be the perfect night for giving our gifts.  Both of the children loved what they got.  Our daughter made little gifts for each of us.  She included a little letter with each gift.  It was so sweet!

Tomorrow I hope to do some more baking with the children.  Oreo Bon-Bons are next on the list!  Yum!

Until tomorrow night...

Happy Hanukkah!

Tonight was a little different because my son went to his best friend's house.  We ended up doing things differently.  When we got home, we lit our candles and my hubby said the blessings.  Next, my hubby talked about the meaning our candles for tonight.  We then just spent a leisurely evening together.  We played dreidels.  Then my daughter and I sat on the couch while my hubby played songs on the keyboard.  We ended the evening by watching Little Women.

If you remember, last night the third candle represented sin that entered the world.  Thus, God's light to Adam and Eve (thus mankind) was darkened.  So we blew out the shamash candle.  Tonight, the fourth candle represented Jesus.  God came to Earth in the flesh.  The shamash candle now represents Jesus.  Sin is still present, but Jesus' light shines brightly.  Jesus is now in human form, serving.

Because tonight is the night of our holiday celebration where we celebrate the birth of Christ, this is the night we also typically give one gift to one another.  We give each other a gift in celebration of the gift God gave us when He gave us His Son Jesus.  Since our son was not here tonight, we decided to not give the gifts yet.  We will do that another night when our son is here.

We haven't got our film developed yet.  I may have to wait until the end of our celebration to get them all developed at once.  Then maybe I could do a slideshow presentation.

Until tomorrow night...

Happy Hanukkah! 

Tonight was our third night of celebration.  We've had a pretty good day.  This afternoon, the children and I tried out a new cookie recipe.  Thanks to Cornings at Home, we had a great recipe for Butter Cookie Snowmen. 

These turned out wonderfully.  The children and I all participated in mixing and making the dough.  We shaped all the dough into the individual parts.  Then we began constructing the snowmen.  I let the children do most of the constructing part.  However, I did make a couple.  It was really neat!  We were tickled at how the first batch turned out.  One of the children said, "It worked!"  Thanks Cornings at Home for a great recipe.  This will be one that will surely make it to our holiday baking tradition this time of year.  I took pictures of our baking and hope to share those with you in the next couple of days.  We don't have a good working digital camera.  So I am taking pictures with our regular camera and then we have to get the pictures put on a CD in order for me to be able to upload them.  I'm hoping we can get our next roll of film developed tomorrow.

Tonight, we lit our candles and hubby said the blessings.  We had our meal.  After our meal was done and dishes cleaned up, we played dreidels.  I won both games tonight!!  Go Mommy, go Mommy, go Mommy!  LOL

After our game of dreidels, the children got to perform a recital.  Last night they both wanted to play some things for my hubby and I on their keyboards.  So we told them to practice throughout the day today and we'd let them have a recital tonight.  This evening, they both got to have a turn playing things on their keyboards for Daddy and Mommy.  After they finished, I read our story for tonight.  I read one of the sections from a little book called The Eight Nights of Hanukkah.  We let the children each have a snowman cookie to eat while I read.

Let me share what our candles represented tonight.  The shamash candle still represented God.  The first two candles still represented Adam and Eve.  God walked and talked with Adam and Eve.  But then sin entered the world.  Our third candle represented sin.  We blew out the shamash candle because when sin entered the world, God's light to Adam and Eve (as well as mankind) was darkened.  I hope you will come back again tomorrow night to find out what our next candle represents!

Until tomorrow night...

My hubby and I spent a good portion of the day out as I had my prenatal appointment.  I was there for awhile because they had to do several things.  Everything went really well!  We got home some time after 4:00p.m.  By the time showers were taken and a little clean-up was done around the house, it was time to start our celebration.

We followed the same format as last night so I won't keep posting that night after night.  Tonight I want to share with you what our candles represented, as well as some pics from last night.

Tonight, the shamash candle (servant candle) represented God.  The first two candles represented Adam and Eve.  God walked and talked with Adam and Eve and was their Light.  After our game of dreidels, my hubby discussed the candle representations with us all.  Both last night and tonight when we've discussed the meaning of the candles, other Biblical questions arose from the children.  So it has turned out to not only be a time of discussing the meaning of the candles but also a time of discussing other Biblical things.

Now for some pics from last night.

This is actually one of those flags you can hang out in front of your house.  But we choose to use it as a wall hanging in our home.  It's very fun and festive looking!  

This is a posterboard-type decoration that we put up.  I believe my son was the one to hang it up on the door this time.  It has all the candles that come with it.  Each night you put up a candle and leave it there.  On the eighth night you will have all the candles in place.  We have this hanging on our door along with some other decorations beneath it.

Finally, here is a pic of all three of our menorahs.  On the far left is our son's menorah.  The middle one is our daughter's.  And the one on the far right is my hubby and I's menorah.  If you know anything about the position of the candles, you'll notice we had the first candle in the wrong place.  Oops!  Oh well, we got it right tonight.  My hubby and I's menorah is the very first one we bought.  We originally thought we would pass this one on to whichever child gets married first I believe.  But then we ended up getting each child their own menorrah. 

It's kind of hard to tell what all the little things are sitting in front of the menorahs.  First, notice there are three square candles.  This is a set of candles given to me by my best friend several years ago.  We haven't lit them as we like to keep them for decorations.  One candle has the word "Shalom" on it.  One candle has a Star of David on it.  And one candle has a menorah on it.  In front of the candles are some dreidels as well as some stamps that you can use to make cards with.  One stamp has a Star of David on it and the other stamp has a menorrah on it. 

We're taking another day off of school tomorrow and I hope to do a little baking with the children.  Until tomorrow night....

Tonight was the first night of our holiday celebration.  It started out with a bang!  A traumatic bang!  My daughter was injured while out playing with her cousins.  She is fine but it really scared her and truthfully – scared me too!

The candles were placed in each menorah.  We have a total of five menorahs.  We have our very first menorah which is now the one my hubby and I share.  Then each of our children have their own menorahs.  Finally, we have two extra and we use those if we have company over and they want to light their own menorah.

As I have already shared, our celebration is largely patterned after Hanukkah.  Yet, we have added our own traditions and meanings to it.  We light the menorah each night.  However, each candle represents something each night. 

There is one candle that stands above all the rest.  It is called the Shamash candle or servant candle.  It is the one that is used to light all the other candles.  My hubby and I together lit our Shamash candle as we said:  “Yeshua said:  I am the Light of the world.”

Then each child lit their Shamash candle and said the same thing.

My hubby then said a blessing that is said each evening after the Shamash candle is lit.  He said:

          “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe,
          who has kept us in life, sustained us and brought us to this
          season.”

My hubby and I together took our Shamash candle and lit the first candle while saying:  “Those who follow Jesus shall not walk in darkness.”  Then the children did the same with their own Shamash candles and first candles.

My hubby then said another blessing including blessing our meal.  We then enjoyed dinner with the candles burning brightly.  We had music playing this whole time as well.

We discussed what our candles represented tonight.  Let me share with you as well.

Tonight, the Shamash candle represents God.  The first candle represented Adam.  When God created the world, He created man.  And so life began in this world. 

After dinner was done and dishes cleaned up, we played the much anticipated game of Dreidels.  I’ll explain this game on another night.  Tonight, I want to share with you our tradition of reading.  Each year, we read a book or story each evening of our celebration.  We try to buy one new book each year to add to our collection.  We read a story before the children’s bedtime.  We have a special book called “While the Candles Burn.”  It has eight stories in it, one for each night of Hanukkah.  I was bummed when we couldn’t find this book.  So tonight, we were not able to read our traditional story “Day by Day.”  I will miss not being able to read from this book.  However, we have other books we also read from so we will still be doing that.  Tonight, our daughter read out loud to all of us the “Story of Hanukkah” from the book “My Favorite Hanukkah Book”.  She did a wonderful job!  She read another little section out of that book as well.  We looked at some old photos my son had found and then it was time for bed for the children.

Even though, it took a little time to chill out after the traumatic beginning, it was a pretty good evening.  We took pictures tonight and are going to try and get them developed and on a disk tomorrow.  I hope to be able to post some of the pics tomorrow.  Until tomorrow then……

Tomorrow night is an exciting night for our family.  Our Celebration of Lights begins.  This evening we pulled out the box with our decorations and menorahs and all.  My hubby got our wall hanging hung and the menorahs put in place.  He dug out the candles so they would be ready for tomorrow night.  We played some festive music.  My daughter was all excited!  We look forward to this time of year.  I have plans for the children and I to do some baking.  I'm looking forward to that.  Beginning tomorrow night, I plan to make a post each evening of our celebration telling what we've done that day/evening and what our candle(s) represent on that particular night.  I also plan to tell of some of our traditions throughout the week as well such as dreidels, latkes and gifts. 

I hope you will come back each night and see what we do.  It's such a special time of celebration for our family.  I am glad to be sharing it with you all!