I'm dreaming of a white Hannukah

 
menorah's lit on the table at our synagogue Hanukkah celebration

We had a beautiful 8 days of Hanukkah here.  We had snow 2 days, so we had a "white Hanukkah".  We light the menorah each night, and Leah sang along with the prayer.

 
congregation member playing for us on the piano as the "candles were burning low" from the menorahs.

On the last night of Hanukkah (saturday), we celebrated at our new synagogue congregation in Amsterdam.  They had a potluck, with a crafts afternoon for kids.  Leah painted her own wooden menorah, which we lit at the end of the evening. We then light all the manora's, with the Rabbi leading in the prayers. Followed was a pot-luck.  I will have more blogs on the temple later, but we had a wonderful time!


Leah making her own manorah at the kids' hanukkah party before the pot-luck
 
We also had the extended family over to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah.  I told a simplified version of "why we celebrate Hanukkah" in dutch for the kids.  I also made latkes from scratch with big thanks to Jan and Nettie for peeling a lot of potatoes!


Making Latkes from scratch (yes, on a step-ladder)

Leah is slowly understanding a little more about Judaism.  When asked what her Christmas tree looked like, she answered "I don't have a Christmas tree, I am Jewish".

celebrating first night Hanukkah with the extended family

SinterKlaas 2012

  This sunday we celebrated Sinterklaas with the extended family at Jan and Nettie's house. The 3 older kids (Quinten age 7 and Leah + Stine age 4 sang seasonal songs while Finn ran around examining everything. Then there was a knock on the door, and when the kids ran outside there was a huge box full of gifts.



Leah was very happy with her dress-up costume, music box and arts/crafts toys amongs others. Finn got an etch-a-sketch and a tractor amongst the to presents. All the adults also enjoyed gifts and traditional drinks of hot-chocolate. We also ate gingerbread-like cookies called "pepper nuts".







Next week, we will be celbrating Hanukkah here at our house, with the extended family coming to join in.

 

For those interested,a brief explanation on the dutch Sinterklaas traditions. Sinterkaas is celebrated on Decembr 4th. Sinterklaas lives in Spain for most of the year (much smarter to me than the cold North Pole). The official holiday is on December 5th. At the end of November, Sinterklaas comesby steam boat to the Netherlands with his white horse and his "black pete" helpers (same role as Santa's elves). The Black Petes are mischievous helpers with black faces and colourful Moorish dresses. Kids leave shoes out to revieve presents in, and also leave a carrot for the horse. Today, the people paint their faces black and dress in colorful page-boy like costumes with a lace color and feathered cap.