hanukkah 2009

We have some good friends who a few years back invited us over to celebrate Hanukkah with them. Since then, we've celebrated it each year at some point during the eight days of Hanukkah. Today was the day this year. We cooked latkes and fish and Sari made "candles" out of pineapple rings and bananas. (forgot to take photos...) We ate the latkes with applesauce and sour cream, they were so yummy! For dessert, we always have fried bananas. (Except for Keith, he just eats the fried, not the bananas...)
After dinner, Sari read us the story of Judah Maccabbe and the miracle of the lights. It's so fun to know that these are our ancestors, they were standing up for their God, who is our God, and He blessed them with miracles, just as He blesses us with miracles. We were able to have a great discussion about our Savior and His role in the plan. I love for my kids to have these experiences and to see others perspectives, I hope it makes them less judgemental of those who are different from us. It's so important to remember we're all different but God loves us all...
We always end the experience with a game of Dreidel. We played it using M&M's. Shawnie won, as usual. I don't know how she did with all the eating of her M&M's that was going on. Maybe it's because it was Sari's M&M's she was sneaking and eating...