DiversityTastes Divine

When my older son was in kindergarten, we learned a song:

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, festival of lights.

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, seven days, eight nights.

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, let the dreidel spin.

Hanukkah, Hanukkah, let's all join in!

(I'm pretty sure it's an old Hap Palmer tune.  Love Hap Palmer, even if he neglected to mention the latkes!)

So tonight--the eighth night of Hanukkah--we lit eight candles (even if some were peppermint-striped and some shaped like Christmas trees).

 

If you counted nine, that's because we used a shamash or helper candle.

And we fried our latkes--you have to love a holiday that involves fried foods!

 

Sizzle, sizzle.

Yep, served on our The Night Before Christmas plates.

 

With homemade applesauce on top...Oh. My. Goodness.

We spun our dreidels while we ate.  Long ago I made up little rhymes to help my feeble brain the kidlets remember what to do:

• Shin (shin, shin, put one in).  
• Nun (none in, none out).  
• Hay (hay-af, half--one for the pot, one for me, one for the pot, one for me). 
• And Gimel (gimel, gimel, gimme all).

It took a lot of spins to get my mini-dreidels to come up Gimel.

 

I like the win/win of celebrating holidays from other traditions and cultures.  Celebrate, understand, respect, coexist peacefully.  We can learn a lot from kindergartners.

Dedicated to learning good things,

My Guideposts - Week46

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something, and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.
 

~His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso

Devotedly (but quite as single-minded as Kharma),

My Guideposts - Week45

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.
 

~Mother Teresa

;~)

Cinderella Whips Potatoes

Final Score: Nevada 34 - Boise 31

One more thing to give thanks for.  Fun game to watch with drama, heartbreak, near misses, thrills, chills (it was only thirty-one degrees), frequent nailbiting, moans and groans, and more ups and downs than a game should have.  And I'm not a football fan.

Smiling ear to ear,

My Snowbirds

It's their first snowfall.

They like it a whole lot better than rain, partly because we always have sunshine after a snowstorm. And dry soil under our incense cedar well-suited for frazzling.

And a nice bench perfect for catching the rays on. 

I'm not sure what they're going to think about temps falling into the low teens. Uh-oh, I think Norma Jean might have heard me.

"What did you say? Teens?!  And we're sleeping where?"

Don't worry, ladies, I have a plan for heating your coop. 

 

And our resident turkey has a message for all of you this Thanksgiving. 

 

Personally, I prefer this message from my son.

Wishing you all a wonderful, happy, replete Thanksgiving,

No Secrets

Fresh snow never lies. Miss Mousey spends her nights hanging out in the chicken run and sleeps in the woodpile during the day.

It's hard to devise a trap that won't catch chicken toes or a dog nose.

So for now, Miss Mousey gets a pass.

I guess the white stuff has gotten me in the Christmas spirit a little early this year.


Snowily,

My Guideposts - Week44

 

Order is a lovely thing;
On disarray she lays her wing,
Teaching simplicity to sing.

~Anna Hempstead Branch

I am loving my cleaned-off kitchen countertop and my favorite canisters in their new arrangement--just in time for my annual Thanksgiving baking.