Hanukkah Party 2008

so, this year i had a few friends over for a hanukkah party- some who were jewish (wow, i have jewish friends) and more who were not! unfortunately, ali got sick so she could not come help out, but, eden and 2 of her friends who are jewish, sherri's husband, michael- and then myself. michele ended up not being able to make it, either- so, the purpose was to eat, have good times, and teach my friends and their kids about hanukkah, because most had been asking me alot of questions. it was fun- i dont like hosting things at my house bc i am a procrastinator and always worry about if people are bored or whatnot, but this was the 2nd thing i had hosted in a few months (the pumpkin carving)... so i wont be hosting anything else for a while!

everyone brought a dish - we had latkes, hanukkah cookies and gelt. we lit 4 menorahs (one for each of the girls, one for justin, and one i lit..) andi sang the prayer- i was expecting my jew friends to sing WITH ME but they started to fade out after the first verse leaving me singing- which i dont like to do in public- esp after 6th grade pop show when i sang Maoz Tzur and embarassed and scarred myself for life!!!  anwyay-  i explained why we light them for 8 days, and a little more about hanukkah. i know we arent supposed to blow them out, but i'd rather blow them out than have a fire- so we did! too many people and too much risk of someone knocking them over and fire! i am paranoid of fires - fyi! in my aptmt in virginia, i woke up one night to natalie telling me to get up and we had to get out- the fire alarm was going off in the hall (and i was SLEEPING THROUGH IT - therefore i couldnt sleep alone at my aptmt after that bc i was scared i'd sleep through another one!) so we ran downstairs (we were on floor 8)- when we got to about the 4th floor, we were running through smoke- it was super scary to say the least. that was only one of like 4 fire alarms there that year.. anyway- dont like candles, dont like fires!

here are a few pics from the party:











and hanukkah in a mixed religion home looks like... (below)