Latkes and Yule Logs and Santa, Oh my!!

Teaching my children diversity is a tricky thing... but it's a challenge I accept, love and look forward to! There's more to the Winter Holiday's than Christmas (although my boys love that one the most) and it is my pleasure to teach them (and myself in the process) about all the wonderful beliefs people of the world hold.

This year Hanukkah and Winter Solstice fell on the same day... so we did Winter Solstice first and celebrated just like our ancestors did by celebrating the birth of the new SUN. We had a feast with Kelly & Danny and their boys, read books about Winter Solstice, decorated a Yule Log to burn in our backyard, Jeff & Danny dressed up as the Oak King & Holly King and pretended to battle (which all the boys LOVED!) then came into the warm LIT house and ate Yule Log then went downstairs to play Rockband... All was authentic except for the Rockband part;-)

The following day we celebrated Hanukkah as a family by lighting the Menorah, feasting on Latkes with sour cream and applesauce, watching a video about the Maccabees then quizzing the boys on their knowledge rewarding them with Gelt (chocolate coins) that we then used to play the dreidel game. We read books and listened to music and had a wonderful celebration! But we only celebrated Hanukkah for one night, instead of eight.

So the week before Christmas was a busy week, but I'd like to think we all enjoyed every minute! I could go on and on about each of our celebrations, but that gives you the general gist...