Channukah, 8 Days Remembered

1ST DAY

The very first day of Channukah was without a doubt the most memorable. The L-rd, Blessed be His Name, answered the prayer of our hearts. My sister's husband, a sweet, godly man underwent a vital surgical procedure. Not long ago his health was suffering from several issues that  required immediate and dangerous treatments. I'm glad to say that by Hashem's loving kindness, and mercy, he underwent a successful kidney transplant, and is quickly recovering. We feel so blessed that my 18yr.old nephew with the greatest love and honor for his father, made the decision to be the donor.
We also lit our menorah together with my other brother-in-law, and my sister via skype.

2ND DAY
We completed the project worked on for the past few weeks. Together with my husband, we designed and made a giant menorah.

3RD DAY
Made a trip to San Antonio, to visit the congregation Shearit Yisrael for their Channukah celebration. We were happy to see family there, especially my nephew Caleb whom was recovering from the procedure of donating an organ.

                                                My nephew Caleb and my daughter Chava 

Caleb

                                                     Shearit Yisrael

                                              Preparing to light the menorah

4TH DAY
Went to Shabbat Service @ Zion. We were so blessed to be at the Shabbat Service and fellowship with others there.

5TH DAY
Made yummy latkes for breakfast. Went to Zion's Channukah celebration in the evening. The kids had an amazing time and really enjoyed themselves.

Singing @ Zion

Kids Playing with Dreidels

Matthew with his gelt

Everyone's Channukias

6TH DAY

Celebrated Channukah at home and had a talent show. Not only did we have lovely music, but we shared many laughs that night and had a truly memorable time as a family.

Reading from my siddur

Playing and Laughing Together

Pretending to be asleep

7TH DAY
Worked on project with the kids. We got the art supplies out and had a blast painting plates with Channukah designs. All I had to do is send one of my kids to get the paints out; and before I knew it, everyone was gathered around the table painting. Everyone at our house loves painting. =)

Chava's Creation

8TH DAY
We had our last celebration at home; lit the candles (tea light candles), sang, and read from my siddur. We made hot fudge sundaes and nachos. As an old tradition of our family, my husband gave each one of the kids a flash light which they enjoyed playing with, till late at night.

Tea lights we used when we ran out of the other candles

My Siddur

The kids get their flashlights

Waving the lights around

Playing outside

Menorah & Channukia, An Inovative Design

We have finally completed our channukia. When we began this project, we originally planned to make a seven branch menorah. As I noted in my previous post we were asked to take a channukia to a Channukah celebration. A congregation had seen the pictures and thought we were working on a channukia. We didn't want to mess with the original design and decided to come up with an idea to keep the menorah as we first intended. My other post has pictures of the menorah as it was before finished. After thinking it over a bit, we came up with this new design. Here I'm sharing some pictures I took throughout the process and with the finished product. Count the branches on the menorah and notice the difference. The last two branches are removable but in the pictures are just swiveled to show the difference.

              Have a HAPPY CHANNUKAH!