While I was back in Michigan, I went to my dad's temple for a latke dinner.  My dad is Jewish, if you didn't know that, so we also celebrate Jewish holidays (such as Hanukkah).  My dad's men's group was hosting the dinner, so I was already familiar with the side dishes -- cole slaw and homemade applesauce -- before the dinner even happened.

Also included in the dinner were latkes, of course, and hot dogs.  It was actually pretty good.

And a pickle.  Jewish people loooove their pickles.

After the dinner was over, the rabbi tried to convince us to stay for the service and menorah lighting.  He said they lit about 50 menorahs at once.  But my mom and I had plans to go out for dessert instead. 

Anyone who says they do not like dessert is in denial

At home, we celebrated Hanukkah by lighting our own menorah.



We also have a sticky window menorah, which I had the duty of "lighting."

I wanted to get the reflection of the Christmas tree lights in for the double holiday effect

I'm not gonna lie, part of the fun of Hanukkah is seeing what kind of presents we get.  It's usually some cheap thing my mom found on sale the year before, but it's amusing to see what she comes up with.  I'm not going to post everything I got for each of the 8 days, because my mom enjoys giving us underwear in hopes that we'll throw our old ones away.  Haha.  But here's a few things.

Matt actually used this oven mitt today

Adventure Time! (if you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up)

wool socks are the best field socks