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.
![]() |
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!
|
It's great! Thank you for sharing. I remember my fist holidays without family, it was fun, but pretty sad at the same time. This year we are going to celebrate in Italy, renting cars and going to Milan.
ReplyDelete