How Do You Do That?

When My Favoritest and I got married, we were living in South GA. We had lots of people very curious about how I could be Jewish and My Favoritest could be Christian. In our lives, it hasn't been too difficult. It was a subject we tackled on while sitting in a parking lot. I said I wanted my children to be raised Jewish. He said that was fine, but he wanted them to be allowed to explore other religions if they wanted to when they were older. I said fine. He also said he wanted a Christmas tree. I was cool with that. Like I said, it was pretty easy.

Over the years, we have developed our own traditions and we joke that we celebrate Chrismukkah. There will come a day in the not so distant future when we will have to give Doodle some concrete explanations about our holiday celebrations. When that day comes, we will make sure she understands that our celebration of Christmas is centered around the secular traditions of the holiday. We will also make sure that she understands that for Christians, Christmas is a time to clelebrate the birth of Jesus.

This year was the first year that she was old enough to really enjoy the magic of the holiday season. She was mesmorized by the menorah candles each night. She eagerly raced to find Murphy our elf each morning. She looked forward to Santa's visit, but was still leary of actually sitting on his lap. It was fabulous to celebrate the season with the rose colored vision of a 4 year old.

I have lots and lots and lots of pictures to share from all the celebrating, but today I am sharing some of our holiday decorations. I think they give a great picture of how we celebrate Chrismukkah. Doodle was really excited to put all the decoration up, and when they came down yesterday she was very sad. Hope you enjoy!

Doodle and My Favoritest hanging ornaments on the tree.

Doodle insisted we wear our "matches" from last year. Don't worry, I have pictures of this years "matches" coming soon!

 

The beautiful glow of Hanukkah candles from the 3 menorahs that Doodle insisted we light every night!

 

Presents under the tree. Because my parents traditionally spend Christmas with us, we save some Hanukkah presents from Bubbie and Zayde to open Christmas morning. We also save our presents for them. I love the mixture of Hanukkah and Christmas paper.

Our mantel with our stockings hung with care. The menorah in the middle was a gift from our rabbi in Valdosta. He brought it back from Israel and gave it to us as a wedding gift. Bubbie and Zayde have special Hanukkah stockings that I made for them a couple of years ago. I used Doodle's handprints to make a menorah.

Doodle's new ornament from some friends. I just like the way the light shines through.

Murphy, our elf, was very helpful in decorating for Hanukkah. She hung the blinky lights above the menorahs.

She brough Doodle and SJ an new Hanukkah book and played with the wooded menorah.

And she even helped make a centerpiece with the Hanukkah ornaments Bubbie sent us!

All in all, the house was fun and full of holiday spirit. I really enjoyed putting out all our things this year. Doodle had lots of fun helping us!

 

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