Hanukkah Hearts

We celebrated Hanukkah with our neighbors last night.  It was the eighth and last day of Hanukkah and we were going to have an opportunity to see them light the candles, sing the traditional songs, eat a traditional meal and of course, spin driedels. 

They had potato latkes with sour cream and apple sauce.  There was matzo ball soup my neighbor had made and we had a special kind of donut for dessert.  My children were excited from the start.  My son knew it was a special day and he told me when it was about time to go, "I want to go see Hanukkah."

We watched as they lighted their Menorahs and sang and then we sat down to dinner.  We ate, had fun, tried to keep the two excitable children calm, and eventually let them go upstairs to play in the room with the toys. 

My neighbor's children are twelve and fourteen, but they have toys in a special closet that my son and daughter know about.  These toys are there just for them and other children who come over.  They're toys from when Blake and Shane were younger.   Blake and Shane love to play with our children too, so in short order, they disappeared upstairs to play with them.

But there were presents!  So everyone came back downstairs.  My children got a toy each that they have been playing with since yesterday.  We didn't get presents for Shane and Blake, but that's because we have a plan.  We're going to have them over for a celebration around Christmas and we're going to have stockings filled with lots of fun things for each of them.   We're looking forward to that.

After the presents, we played the dreidel game and I discovered it was easier to lose your money to your son than it was your competitors.  My son had discovered the "coins" were really chocolate wrapped in foil.  He was all over them. 

Then we had dessert, which traditionally is a jelly-filled donut, but in this case, was Dunkin Donuts Boston Creme variety.  My neighbors said they didn't like jelly-filled donuts and we all decided that was fine with us.

We came home with two tired and happy children.  It was a special evening and we were so happy our new neighbors wanted to share it with us.

The Big Boy Update:  He decided to take a nap today.  This is the second time he's done this recently.  We know he's tired, but he usually doesn't want to nap.  Today he went up to his room and didn't come out.  We found him a few minutes later asleep in his bed.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The hair spray trick is helping keep her hair out of her eyes well.  I haven't been putting hair bows in for a while now and I think she likes it better too.