Top five moments of Hannukah (so far)

5. The candles belong on the porch.

We're setting up our Hannukiot (candelabras with eight branches) and Silvia looks up at me and says I'm doing it wrong. "Excuse me?" Aaron says. She says that we need to light the candles out on the porch so that all of our neighbors can see it. "But then all the candles will blow out with the wind." Aaron replied. She thought for a minute. Then put them on the floor in front of the sliding glass doors out to the porch. "But then they'll get knocked over." Aaron said to her. She thought for some more. "How about on the window sill in the kitchen?" Aaron asked. That would be ok, she said. So every night we have crowded between the stove and the washing machine in the tiny area in the "Service Porch" which is where the kitchen window is located. We finally moved out to main kitchen when we had our second set of guests and realized the eight of us couldn't squeeze into the 4' x 4' area.

4. Sufganiot miflazot or "Doughnut Monsters"

We invited friends over for candle lighting, latkes and the attendent fried food for hanukkah. They are originally from Italy, so Debra asked them to bring a traditional Italian hanukkah dish. They arrived with the most delicious soufganiyot (doughnuts) that we've ever tasted or seen. She said that they are called "soufganiyot mifletzot," or "doughnut monsters." They were delicious! Here is a great photo of these monsters:



3. The Big Dreidel in the sky

Each of the girls' pre-schools had a Hannukah party. These parties aren't "parties" per se, but carefully orchestrated pageants that are choreographed to music and last about two hours. Seriously. And for the full two hours, our kids were either participating in some song, dance or skit, or watching their classmates do the same. But the common denominator of both parties were soufganiot (doughnuts) and BIG DREIDELS IN THE SKY. At the end of each party, a big dreidel was lowered from the ceiling to the ground, and the teacher reached in to give out hannukah candy or gelt. Looking carefully, Debra noticed that there were pulleys and hooks permanently installed in the ceilings and walls, indicating this is a regular affair. When the BIG DREIDEL first came down, Debra thought to herself "pinata!" But no, that's just her Texas upbringing sneaking out. Come on. Don't you wish you had a Big Dreidel every year? Here is a photo of the dreidel as it is being lowered at Mim's chanukah party. (Mim is sitting in front of the mirror.)

[This is not to be confused with Aaron's brother-in-law David's eight foot dreidel that he built in his front yard. That was a very impressive big dreidel! I'll try to post a photo soon.]

2. Don't worry Mim, it's not the Greeks coming to destroy us.

Debra in the kitchen preparing dinner one night. (Not latkes. Only so many nights of those.) There is a ruckus in the hallway. Silvie and Mim are sitting at the table doing an art project. After a minute, Debra hears Silvie saying in the most comforting of voices: "Don't worry Mim, it's not the Greeks coming to destroy the Beit HaMigdash."

For those of you who don't know the story of hanukkah, it revolves around the Greeks conquering the First Temple (the Beit HaMigdash), the Maccabees fighting the Greeks and the miracle of the sanctified olive oil in the lamp lasting for eight nights instead of just one. (It's a bit more complicated than that, though.) Anyway, this story has been told over and over at Silvie's gan, and so we think it was on her mind this time of year, anyway. But it was the last thing Debra expected to hear out of her mouth when she heard noise in the hallway!

Here is Silvie as "Silvia Maccabee" defending the Jews against the Greek, at her pre-school Hanukkah party.



1. We're out of milk.

We're having dinner with friends for candle lighting and dinner. At some point, Silvia goes into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of milk. She comes back and tells me that we are out of milk. Ok, I said out of the corner of my mouth. So she says it again, but I don't really pay attention. So she goes back into the kitchen, takes the empty milk bag (it's how milk comes in this country), comes back to the table and puts it on my plate. Dad, she says, see - we're out of milk. Satisfied that I now have acknowledged it, she wanders off to her room to play. Our friends thought it was the funniest thing in the world, at which point their teenage daughter wondered if she could start doing the same thing - Mom, look, the bank account is empty. At which point, the mother said, oh yeah, that sounds great and started thinking of her list of things: look here's the dirty laundry you left on the floor. It escalated from there until we were all laughing too hard to talk.