Exciting Times

Hanukkah is almost here and that means many things - first, we are throwing a Hanukkah party next Sunday and second and most fun, we going home to California for our Hanukkah break!

Hanukkah starts on Friday night which means that it starts on Shabbat and this presents an interesting situation. Since Shabbat candlelighting is Jerusalem is a full 40 minutes before sundown (versus 18 minutes before sundown in the rest of the world), Hanukkah candles need to remain lit for more than an hour (since Hanukkah lights need to burn for a half-hour after nightfall). So, while one can normally use the very colorful small candles for Hanukkah, for Hanukkah which falls on Shabbat, much larger candles need to be used. This year is especially challenging because Shabbat falls within Hanukkah twice.

The grocery store just delivered our groceries - three large boxes of groceries - for our Sunday night party. It's so wonderful that they offer this service because it means carrying less up the stairs for yours truly. Unfortunately, the store did not refrigerate our cold items so I have two items to return to the store which were sitting out since last night.

So, we're going home! We're very much looking forward to our trip home and spending time with family and our pets. We fly on Monday night and arrive mid-day Tuesday. It's nice to fly against the rotation of the earth because it makes one's flight seem so much shorter. I'm sure our jet-lag will show us how wrong I am.