Hanukkah-Festival of Lights!

The Menorah on the First Night of Hannukah. The middle is called the Shamash and is used to light the other candles.


Potato Latkes, served with Sour Cream and Apple Sauce. So Yummy!


Dreidels and Chocolate Gelt

Since I live and work in a Jewish Home I wanted to share a little bit about the holiday we've been celebrating this past week. Hanukkah started on Tuesday evening and lasts 8 nights.

Here's a little background. Long ago, King Antiochus and the Syrians ruled over the land of Israel. The king tried to force the Jews to give up their religion. He seized the Temple and put out the great seven-branched menorah. But the Jews, led by Judah Maccabee fought back and won a long battle against the wicked king. The Jews cleaned the Temple and made it beautiful again. Then they tried to light the lamp. But there was only enough olive oil to light the lamp for one day. A miracle happened, and the oil lasted for eight days. This gave the Jews enough time to make more oil. This is why Hanukkah is referred to as the "Festival of Lights".

It's been a unique opportunity to celebrate with the cute family I nanny for. We made Latkes (potato pancakes) on Tuesday evening and lit the menorah and the kids taught me how to play dreidel. Since there are eight nights of Hanukkah we recieve and give a gift for each of the eight nights. Now you know where my salary goes at the end of the year. I've loved the gift giving though and each year I try to make something so it's a little more personal. Last year I had my mom make blankets...This year I was a little more ambitious and made a scrapbook of all our fun nanny outings. Pretty much I'm married to my job...but it's cool!


A peek at my Hanukkah gift!