Warmth and Beauty

This is why I love Hanukkah so much, I love the warmth and beauty that comes from a fully lit Menorah on the last night!

8 Crazy Nights!

Whelp, I had every intention of blogging about Hanukkah as it passed by but somehow life got in the way, so here we go a summary of 8 crazy nights! Riley loved Hanukkah, I'm not really surprised, because Riley loves everything in life in general. Hanukkah was a ton of fun this year. We tried to get Riley to say "Hanukkah" but it became more of "Hakakaka," which became our holiday favorite.

Here are half of Riley's presents! She made out like a bandit! Riley took to Hanukkah very quickly, at dinner she would pick up her plate and say "All done. Hakakaka?"

So here goes, Hanukkah in review:

One the first night of Hanukkah, Riley got - Mr. Potato Head. This was probably one of the bigger hits of Hanukkah, who knew that the $7 toy from the 70s would be such a hit!?!

And from Nanna and Peppy - a new purse!

And from Uncle Edwin and Aunt Jill:

On the second night:

On the third night:

On the fourth night we made Hanukkah dinner:

































On the fifth night - clothes!














On the sixth night - clothes for YaYa!













On the seventh night - more clothes!













On the last night - a tricycle!


On the seventh night I was holding Riley as I lit the candles and said the blessings, as I recited the ancient prayers she put her head on my shoulder. I had a moment then, a realization, that this is what life is about. Here we were, standing in our home in Dublin, my daughter in my arms, my husband by my side, doing what our people have been doing for thousands of years, and one day I hope that Riley is standing in her kitchen with her son or daughter in her arms, lighting the candles and saying the very same blessings and that she can feel that same warmth coming from the Menorah, our traditions, and the pure feeling of content that comes from feeling your child pressing up against you. So more so than ever, Hanukkah continues to be my favorite holiday!

Turkey Day

Marc flew into town Thursday so in the morning we went over to my friend Erika's condo to grab some coffee and spend some time with her, she lives right by the airport so it was perfect. We grabbed our pumpkin lattes and went for a walk around Balboa Park, they were doing the Turkey Trot there so we didn't get to far into the park but it was nice to get out and get around until I checked my phone and I had emails from our neighbors that our alarm was going off! They thought it was our ADT alarm but I knew it was our smoke detector because Marc had called me that morning to tell me that they all went off at 4:25AM, just as his alarm was about to go off. He had replaced all of the batteries on Sunday and it seems one of the detectors shorted. The neighbors were worried and since they didn't hear back from us they called the fire department and they were on their way. Oy! I spent the next half hour talking to the Dublin Fire Captain, who was VERY nice! They checked the house out and it looked fine so they left the alarms going off.

I was a half hour late getting Marc but Riley was SUPER excited to see Daddy. We did a little family time, we hit up Old Navy and then had lunch at IHOP (that's all that was open) before heading home to put Riley down for a nap. My mom have 12 people over for Turkey Day including Marc's Aunt and Uncle who live in San Diego.

Riley dancing to the Wiggles again:

All dressed up for Turkey Day!

With Graunt Sandy and Gruncle Michael and Daddy:

Riley was "all done" so she amused herself:

Tradition

When my bro and I were little my mom used to make a HUGE Hanukkah dinner and we would invite friends over for dinner, dreidel, and lots of apple cider. We did this every year growing up until we left for college and even then I think we did it a few times! My good friend from growing up, Mollie, is now living in England with her husband, Simon, and super adorable daughter, Bailey, but they are in the States for 2 months visiting her family so we just had to get together and meet sweet Bailey (who is now 5 months old), Mollie suggested a Hanukkah lunch for old time sakes. Fantastic idea! Everyone knows Hanukkah is my absolute favorite holiday (and not for the presents, though, they are a nice perk, but I love the glow of a Menorah!). I also invited one of my very best friends from growing up, Shannon, over with her mom and her two kids. Sophie and Riley are a few months apart and cutie pie Lucas was just 7 weeks old! It was a yummy time celebrating like we used to. Riley and Sophie had so much fun outside and Simon was a huge sport playing with Riley outside.

The yummy latkes!

Adorable Bailey:

Bailey and Riley definitely took to each other. While Riley was holding Bailey's hand, she popped up and said "walk," (don't worry, Simon and I made sure Bailey didn't get hurt). Riley wanted to take Bailey to show her something and didn't realize babies can't walk. It was super sweet!

Sweet Lucas:

And the grand finale picture. If you have never tried the ice cream bonbons from Trader Joe's, Riley says that you should!

Early Turkey Day

Ok, so I'm way behind on this post, somehow last week got away from me. I had to customer appointments that I was preparing for so blogging got lost in the craziness of work. Boo for work interfering with my hobbies! Safeway has been running super good deals on Thanksgiving foods so since I love to cook, we decided to make an early Thanksgiving dinner since we will be in San Diego and I won't get a chance to cook this year. It was a training Thanksgiving dinner if you will. So last Sunday we feasted (and have continued the feasting all week) as the three of us worked through a turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole!

Riley loved watching the turkey through the oven door.

In the words of Riley, "nummy nummy," I didn't get a picture of the turkey before we carved it but I did get most of the fixings!

Jack-o-Laterns!

Today was my flex day off so I kept Riley home and we had some fall fun. I started out the day with attempt number 2 at Challah, using Crista's recipe. It was another epic failure. I even waited the entire 2 1/2 hours to let it rise, I'm thinking I'm not putting it in a moist enough spot to let it rise. Again, the flavor was tasty but it was super dense again. I was pretty proud of myself for letting it sit for an entire hour and a half without peeking. While the bread was supposed to be rising, Riley and I carved our pumpkins!

Here's Riley picking out her template!

Helping to carve (she wasn't a fan of the mess)...

Proud of our handy work...

With both of our pumpkins...

That's it for me!

Decorating

Since we got our pumpkins I decided it was time to decorate for Halloween, Riley really liked the new ceramic witch my mom sent us this year!

Pumpkin Patch!

This morning we took Riley to the pumpkin patch for our annual visit. We went to the same place that we went to last year, Joan's Pumpkin Farm in Livermore. They have tons of pumpkins along with a corn maze, hay ride, pony rides, and lots of other activities. It was pretty crowded and pretty hot (which just seems wrong to me even though I grew up in San Diego, I just think fall weather is more appropriate for pumpkin picking that 85 degree weather!). Riley wasn't quite sure what to make of everything, she was obviously too young to remember going there last year and I think all of the people threw her off. Plus I think she wasn't quite feeling herself. I'm on vacation this week so if we have time tomorrow, I might take her back so that she can check out the corn maze and hay ride when it's maybe a little less crowded. Of course she was so overstimulated that we had a hard time getting pictures of her but we were able to get a few (ok, I took over 100 but not all of them are all that great!).

This year Riley could stand here by herself (she's a little over 2 1/2 feet!)!

Some comparisons to last year (Marc's wearing his Giants' Orange, go Giants!):

Getting a little help from Dadda with the wagon!

Riley wanted the biggest pumpkin that she could find:

We finally found a "Riley-Sized" pumpkin that she liked:

Rollin' with her pumpkins:

Heading to the car!