It Could Still be Hannukah

Hanukkah came super early this year, and I was all over it.  Last year I decided to take this holiday a little more seriously, meaning I would actually remember to light the menorah on the 1st day, have more than 1 or 2 presents wrapped by then and I even have two parties, to increase the chances people would show up in this busy holiday season.  No party this year, but I did make homemade latkes (kids preferred the Trader Joe's version) and found the Menorahs I'd purchased last year, a total bonus.  Sadly I never made it over to the Jewish store (of course I was in the area on a Saturday), so had to splurge on fancy beeswax candles at BBB, one of the only places with Hanukkah goods (disclaimer, I never checked Target). 

(why yes I'm still having much fun with Picnik)

We started a new tradition, to add to our Christmas one, which is to see The Meshuganutracker at the Retrodome.  It was great, although since the kids have never actually seen the original Nutcracker, Donovan was disappointed and kept asking where the nutcracker was.  The idea is Hanukkah stories told and sung to the music of the Nutcracker, with a lot of great puns thrown in for good measure.   They even had dreidels, latkes, Psycho jelly donuts (Sufganiyot) and Gelt for snacks.   My kids of course convinced Grandpa to get them lots of candy.  It was funny and super entertaining, as are all the shows there.  We've been to Santastic the past two years, and provided a last minute soccer tournament doesn't get in the way hope to see it this weekend.

A shout-out to Tinyprints for free Hanukkah cards...they had a special (among many specials) for 5 free Hanukkah cards, and I had them sent to all my family.  They were customized and just wonderful. the kids loved them - my dad barely remembered receiving his, just focused on how I had time to create a card.  Nice to see a company, even if it was a card company, truly embracing all the holiday.  They are down the street and I actually got to tour their company (blog post in the works), but that had nothing to do with this special.

Next up, my annual dog-walking iPhone photo tour of the neighborhood lights.

Holiday Recap and Happy New Year

So one of my new years resolutions will be to start blogging more, every day perhaps, and in a more timely manner. How hard could that be (I'll let ya know later). This is all starting tomorrow, it's not even new years yet, thank goodness, since I've already ruined one pumpkin pie (oven set to broil gosh darnit), and made a Mexican version of these scrumptious things (note, even though carnitas are marinated in orange juice, they still will not work for an Asian type dish, and you should really use a bamboo steamer). Perhaps I'll start a Pioneer Woman and me blog, ala Julie and Julia, 365 days of ruining the recipes posted on her lovely blog. Tomorrow I'm attempting the Leftover Turkey Pot Pie, with my dad's leftover smoked turkey. A prepared Trader Joes foods blog might also be in the works, as in addition to the carnitas, I used their buttermilk biscuits and have frozen veggies and pie crust for said pot pie - scratch that idea.

Now that I've wished you all a Happy New Years (of if not, consider it done), it's back to the holiday recap. We all had two full weeks off, where we tried not to stress too much about the fact that our future employment prospects are a bit grim. Think this was my first unpaid holiday in about 15 years, yikes.

I tried to reintroduce Hanukkah, lighting the menorahs nearly every night and getting gifts for the kids for the first time in a few years. Having never had that Christmas morning feeling, I've been living that through my kids and ignoring this fun but frankly pretty low key holiday. I actually didn't get any gifts, so good think I'd finally bought myself the coat I've always wanted and some cute boots.

I brought these scrumptious things into the classroom, and gave each class a little lesson in Hanukkah.

This color-your-own ornament was one of their Hanukkah gifts. Not surprisingly, it's much easier to find little Christmas themed items than Hanukkah. I refused to spend $10 on a snow globe with a dreidel inside.

Sad as Pelota was after losing her brother, she got into the spirit with a jaunty holiday scarf.

We were very fortunate to get to spend the holidays in Mexico. This is something I did a number of times as a child, and it's not quite as fun when you're the parent. We did have a wonderful time, although I missed the snow we saw the last two Christmas's.

You can see the boys had tons of fun, hardly even complaining during the day long "Jungle tour" which was actually a bus trip to a restaurant, cliff diver and tequila distillery (why yes, there were free tastings).

I have to say, wearing a bikini did not turn me back into the flirty teenager that I remember. They actually had tequila volleyball every day at the pool, but without a co-hort to join in, or a husband that drinks, I just could not get in the spirit.

No worries, though, I had plenty to drink. The owner of their restaurant brought over a tequila slammer at the beginning of the meal, and finished us off with this Kahlua and Bailys concoction. Too bad I had to drink both.

The most fun we had was the Pirate cruise, and there you see our personal pirate, Choco - yum.

Happy New Year, everyone, from the Pachuka boys!

Lights, Music, Christmas

It's freezing here, really, the grass was even covered in frost this morning, much to the kids delight. That's okay, though, because I do love this time of year, at least for the lights if not the weather or the feeling I'm missing out on all sorts of holiday parties. Now that I'm a grown-up, I can decorate my place to my hearts delight, at least inside. I have to admit Christmas lights are still as magical to me as when I was a kid.

We still have never had Christmas lights on our house, so I live vicariously through my neighbors, and this new 'hood is a doozy. I've been taking different routes with our doggy at night, so I can see the latest in Christmas light creativity. Apologize for the poor iPhone quality, but check out those two characters above. Hi frosty! Hi Santa!

When I saw this house, I thought, "oh, they're Jewish."

Then I saw the same lights here. They're snowflakes, not stars of David.

This is our classy neighbors, all matching red and white, with a subtle little Santa in the yard.

Happy happy, joy joy

Christmas cactus anyone?

Say hi to this little guy, who's part of a piece de resistance, the musically coordinated light show on the corner. I stood through two or three songs when walking the dog.

Happy Hanukkah!

What does it say when your husband gets you a foot bath for Hanukkah, and I really, really appreciated it. Am I old? Is our life just a little too boring? Or do I just whine about my feet way, way too much? I do occasionally use my poor achy feet as an excuse to not walk the dogs, and I sure won't stop doing that, cozy little massager or not.

And here are a few gifts I got for myself, manis and martinis with these cool chickies, and, finally, the brass rat. Yes, it's my third. What's kind of funny is my husband was going to get me one of these, but then found out the price. He didn't realized I'd already ordered one for myself.

Hanukkah Schmanukkah

Jill over at Silicon Vally Moms Blog thinks there ain't much Hanukkah gear around here. I guess she hasn't checked out the classy finds at the De Anza Flea Market. I got this for my brother my son doesn't want to give up his new "birthday hat."


And here's the smoker my parents will use for our Hanukkah smoked turkey - the kids have already started.