Hanukkah

I've always enjoyed Hanukkah, but it was SO much more fun this year because we introduced the holiday to Sam.  We began to prepare him for the holiday the week before by reading several great Hanukkah storybooks and practicing with the dreidle.  He was very excited for Hanukkah to arrive!  He liked the candles last year, but at 8 months old, he didn't really understand.  Now that he's 20 months old, he not only understood, but LOVED it.   He was mesmerized by the candles on the menorah and  helped us to light the candles each night.  By the 8th night, he finally learned that he's not allowed to touch the flames.  Last night he said "hot hot!" when we lit the candles. 

1st Night of Hanukkah

8th Night of Hanukkah

Although he liked the latkes (what's not to like about eating fried potatoes??), he was obsessed with eating gelt and sufganiyot (donuts).  The first night he got a little over-excited and tried to eat the gelt without unwrapping the gold foil - luckily we caught him in the act.  I'm quite proud that my child has a true love for chocolate!

On Saturday, my parents, brother, and his girlfriend came over for our family Hanukkah gathering.  We had a terrific meal, sang songs, lit the menorah, played dreidle, and opened presents.  Sam's new favorite toy is his kitchen from my parents.  I also love it because he is entertained by it for 30-45 minutes at a time!  To accompany his toy kitchen, he also received a wooden "sushi making set" which cracked us up.   Who knew such thing existed!

Brad and I exercised restraint and barely bought Sam anything this year - he has more than enough toys, so we made some donations instead.  My mom recently learned about an inner-city daycare in desperate need of assistance.  The center frequently sends diapers home with the kids on Friday night, because if they don't, then the kids come back Monday morning wearing the same diaper that they were sent home in Friday night.  Hearing that story completely broke my heart...I can't even imagine what that child's life must be like...so this year our donations included 250+ diapers and a ton of baby food and toddler snacks to the center to give to these families.  

One of the only things we got Sam was a babydoll stroller and a boy babydoll in hopes that this would introduce him to the idea of having a baby brother. 

He loves the stroller, but doesn't understand that he's supposed to be gentle with the babydoll.  He thinks it is a ball and loves to throw it down the steps, bang it against the wall, and bake it in the toy kitchen oven.  He much prefers to take his sippy cup of milk and put the cup into the stroller and push that around the house.  Thankfully we have a few months to continue teaching him about his future baby brother!

We are so blessed to have received so many terrific Hanukkah presents for Sam and even a gift for the new baby.  David's girlfriend gave us a hilarious newborn onesie with a picture of a baby bottle on it and it says "I'll take a bottle of your house white."  So cute. 

We hope that all of our Jewish friends had a fabulous Hanukkah too!