Favorite Memory from this Year's Celebrations.

I was a bit disappointed in this years Hanukkah celebration. I guess my idea of celebrating the holidays would be for us to celebrate as a family. However, that did not happen. First, I hated the fact that my husband had to go off on a business trip in the middle of the holidays leaving me home to deal with the children. Even when he was home from his trip he was working. I had to light the candles on the menorah and say the blessing alone and had to give the gifts to the kids alone. Most nights and days I just felt like crying but I managed to stay strong for the children.

I think that the children had a lot of fun opening gifts each night. I tried to make it fun where each night they would open up a gift and then I would sit down and play with them and try to get them to laugh and have fun even without daddy's presence. My only wish would have been if my husband would have had the time to celebrate with us. Sure hoping next year will be different.

Well, back to the subject. My favorite memory from this year would have to be the one night that my mom stayed over. That night we took the children to the Holiday Light Spectacular at the Arts Center. We drove through to see the lights with the kids. No, Mom, this was not the favorite part - keep reading. We traveled over an hour to get to the arts center that cost us $15 and it lasted for about 5 minutes which I felt was a waste of time and money. We will definately not do that again next year. It wasn't until we returned home from that trip and drove around the neighborhood to hear Victoria say, "LOOK, LIGHTS" and "LOOK MORE LIGHTS". She said it over and over again as she pointed out the window in the back seat to her brother and sister. Naomi wasn't feeling very well because she was still suffering from an ear infection and it was past her bedtime by the time we got back home and so she says, "NO MORE LIGHTS!" She just wanted to get home and go to sleep. This was my favorite memory. Thanks mom for being there to cheer me up and make my favorite memory with us. We will definately just drive around the neighborhood next year and maybe make it a family tradition.

Even after seeing the many many lights in our neighborhood the children would run to the Menorah each night and say, "LIGHTS". The funny thing about it was after we would turn them on they would all stand there and try to blow them out. They can be so adorable at times.