Tis the Holiday Season

As most of you know, I am lucky enough to have come from a home where I celebrate both Hannukah and Christmas.  This means double the food, double the fun, and double the presents (in my dreams, at least) :) This year is a little different as for the first time I have very own space to decorate and celebrate the holidays in.  I think being away from home made me extra excited to actually decorate.

Hannukah really snuck up on me this year being so early in December, but below is a picture of my home-made "menorah".  I had nine tea candles and I lined them up and said a prayer for the first night of Hannukah.  I have not really met any other Jewish people here, so it felt nice to celebrate at least a little.  I have plans to make latkas later this week!

On to the second half of my life, as tradition goes in the Spatz-Orlansky household, the weekend right after Thanksgiving usually brings a Christmas tree.  Every year of my life, I have always had a real x-mas tree that has been decorated with ornaments and lots of presents.  I figured if I am going to celebrate Christmas many, many miles away from home, I should have a tree as well.  Lucky for me, my friend Greg is going home for x-mas and gave me the fake x-mas tree from his apartment along with ornaments and other fun decorations.  I did not really follow the directions and ended up placing random leaves on top of leaves until I was satisfied with the shape and size of the tree.  I bought the santa hat here for the top and I made the chain link decorations myself.  Below is the final product:

Happy Hannakah to all of my lovely Jews and Christmas will be here before we know it!