on the eighth night...

Low-key seems to have been the theme this year, which is quite alright by me.  We spent the last night of Hanukkah at home, lit all the candles,

ate brownies,

and curled up in front of the fire.  I finished my first ever sock!  Not bad for a beginner knitting project, if I do say so myself!

I hope everyone had as happy of a holiday as we did! :)

on the seventh night...

We picked up a Lord of the Rings pez set for Jake weeks ago, waiting for the perfect time to give it to him.  Since he woke up yesterday proclaiming that he was going to have a Lord of the Rings marathon, we realized the time came.

Hence, The Fellowship of the Pez...

Creepy and cute all at the same time.

I had to grab some fabric for my 4x6 Modern Bee, so Brett and I headed out in the afternoon.  The closest shop is right by an antique mall, so we spent some time perusing, dreaming, and laughing at some of the crazy treasures found within.  One of my favorite things to do.

While there, we found an odd addition. Not sure how Domo is an antique, but he made us laugh. :)

When we came back, we found this "menorah" waiting for us on the kitchen island...

Gotta love that kid.  He had a blast this evening with his Mythology book...complete with quill.

Planning on spending the majority of this last day of Hanukkah in the sewing room!

on the fifth and sixth nights...

 The present pile is getting smaller...

And the lights are getting brighter...

 We spent Saturday evening in front of the fire with some cheese, crackers, and other goodies.

Sunday was Christmas day.  We always do the traditional Jewish thing and go to the movies and out to lunch/dinner.  This year we saw Sherlock Holmes 2 and enjoyed the Chinese buffet.

Gotta love forced teenage smiles.  I guess I should be thankful that I didn't get an eye roll. :)

I hope everyone had a merry day!

on the fourth night...

I found this great recipe for red velvet cookies...I'm a HUGE fan of red velvet, so I figured I would try them out...only, since it's Hanukkah, why not do BLUE velvet, right?

LOL.  Not a natural looking color by any stretch of the imagination, but they were GOOD.  I will definitely make them again, but maybe next time I'll just go with the red food coloring, huh?

 They pups got presents last night...

And Jake scored his much-sought-after Domo slippers.  I love that these made him so happy.

on the third night...

Another low-key evening...which is exactly how we like 'em! :)

The boys got some goofy gifts last night...including Zack's selection of Mike & Ike's...his favorite!

And Jake, whose school mascot is the dragon, got this T-shirt...

And these goofy headphones from Grandma and Grandpa...

We ended the evening with a heated game of bananagrams...another AWESOME game!

on the second night...

Last night, we had a more traditional Hanukkah celebration.  I made my favorite latke recipe to-date...what I affectionately call "White House Latkes".  These apple and potato latkes were made at the White House Hanukkah dinner on the first night.  I figured, if they're good enough for the Obamas, they must be pretty darn good.  Wow - were they!

They boys are enjoying the choose-your-own-adventure approach to gifts this year.  Tonight, Jake opened Apples to Apples...best. game. ever.  We spent at least two hours playing and eating latkes.  What a great night!

on the first night...

 I've been battling this flu/sinus thing for the past four days, so our first night of Hanukkah was pretty low-key.  No latkes, no soufganyot (jelly donuts)...but we did have some frozen banana dreidels...

 

 

 

 These were sooo good.  I originally made them with pound cake, but they were breaking too easily, so I switched to banana.  Reduced the calorie count by quite a bit and the kids gobbled them up!

I made tags this year for the boys' gifts.

And this year, since the boys are older now, we decided to have a pick-your-own-adventure for Hanukkah gifts.  The first night they had to open gift number one, and each consecutive night they will be able to choose which of the remaining gifts they would like to open.  So we have them all set out.

Gift number one were their big things this year...the little one snagged himself a Kindle Fire, and the big guy over there got himself his first ever cell phone.

Which we hid in a book.

He was none too pleased.

Until he opened it up.

Ha.  The little moments of torture make me so happy. ;)