For the first time in my life, I'm not spending the holidays with my family. At first, I wasn't sure it was something I/we could even do (without really disappointing our families...I have an unrealistic need to please everyone), but after
As most of ya'll know, I was raised in a reform Jewish household. I was Bat Mitzvah'd at 13, confirmed at 15, president of my temple's religious school at 17 & graduated from our religious school at 18. My family went to services on every major holiday & often enjoyed the minor holidays, like Hanukkah, at various temple sponsored parties as well. Needless to say, despite my palate enjoying a shrimp cocktail or cheeseburger, it's fair to say I was pretty damn Jewish.
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I can't talk about being all Jewish without sharing some Bat Mitzvah pics... |
In my sister's bed at my grandparents condo in PB |
Of course Duke made the trip FL. (Duke has been there more times than J) |
My first stocking circa 2011 !![]() Last year's Christmas with Joey's sister & cousins Now it's time to create some new traditions. I channeled my inner Seth Cohen & decided we needed to bring the two holidays together in our own unique way & obviously, that started with decorations A few years back while googling Hanukkah Bushes (that's a normal thing to google, right?) I came across this giant Menorah that also functioned as a Christmas tree. Naturally, I went to go find this magical unicorn again & it was completely sold out. Not willing to give up, I reached out to a good friend of ours at Studio 38 Designs in Chicago & asked if he thought he could build me a similar version. Well here you have it, our baby Menorah Tree.
Each light is powered by batteries & can be turned on/off one at a time, perfect for Hanukkah! There are 8 PVC pipes under the thick garland, it's just a tad hard to tell due to the proximity of each pipe to each other. Also, nobody told me just how addicting it can be to buy ornaments. I purposely tried to keep them as holiday generic as possible, with the exception of a few.
I went with a winter white/metallic theme for the other decor because it just felt very festive!
To say I'm excited about how this all turned out would be a complete understatement. I had SO much fun pulling all this decor together & I'm already getting ideas for next year!
In addition to the decor, we plan on spending our holiday watching Christmas movies while eating brisket, latkes & kegual. Best of both holidays!
Happy Holidays Everyone! Stay safe!
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