Wordless Wednesday - Festival of Lights

 

Happy Hanukkah! (The Hat Tax Begins)

 Dear pals,

On Saturday we had Callie's people over for our 21st Hanukkah dinner. As you know, we are not Jewish (we are not anything actually)  and host this dinner because Lady loves latkes (potato pancakes). Man will make her a lot if there is company. 

The Hanukkah Hat Tax

The mischief started earlier in the week when Lady had to get the brisket because Man was sick. She did call Man to confirm that he really wanted  this brisket . . . 

That brisket was 9.8 kg, cost $117 Canadian dollars, and Man make it into 4 briskets. Lady may not ever be allowed to get the meat again. 

Saturday was spent cooking and cleaning.

Latkes are a lot of work. You peel the potatoes, you grate the potatoes, you squeeze the water out of the potatoes, you add onions, zucchini and spices and Man uses a hamburger patty maker to make the perfect shape to deep fry.  It took about 1.5 hours to make 19 perfect latkes.

The guests came and we were very good puppies. Phod loved getting all the pets from what he sees as his extended pack. Hailey, barked briefly when they came in and then sort of ignored all the people. 

Those are green beans with yellow peppers and pine nuts

Latkes and brisket

While we didn't cause mischief at the party, the kids may have. Somehow, while playing pinball, there was an elbow to the face and our good friend Dylan lost a baby tooth. Man later said, is it really a party if someone didn't get hurt?

It was a lovely evening and we look forward to doing it again next year!

Trouble on Tuesday - An Almost Perfect Party

We celebrated Hanukkah on Saturday.

Lady and Man spent 2 days cleaning and cooking. The latkes were exceptional this year. Man used a hamburger press to make them uniformly great. 

All our family came, include cousin Emma.

Hailey got all the love. 

Uncle Chris won best dressed. 

The only problem with this day, was earlier we got just a little bit of snow.  

It was enough to make the roads just slippery enough that 2 of our guests rolled their car on the way over. They are ok, sore and scared. We were all just grateful it was not more serious. 

Hat Tax - Hanukkah Edition

 To all our friends who celebrate - we hope you are having a Happy Hanukkah! 

Tis The Season - Pay the Tax

Tis The Season and in our house that can only mean one time. Time to pay the hat tax.

What is the hat tax you ask?

It is the price we pay for living as 'freeloaders' in this house. Lady says since we do not contribute financially, and only cost her money, several times a year we can amuse her by having to wear hats or dress up so she can take pictures and post them all over the internet. 

Here are the pictures from the first round of Christmas hat tax. Because the Man is still recovering from surgery, this year we only put up our Hanukkah themed tree because Lady could do this on her own (the 15 foot one is too heavy for her to do alone).

Hope our humiliation amused you all!

Tis the season!

Wordless Wednesday - Just Give Me The Cookie!!!!

Happy Hanukkah!

For all our pals who celebrate Hanukkah, we wish you the best and join you in celebrating. 

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Slowly but surely we are getting the house ready for Christmas.

Saturday, I put up our upside down tree, which is decorated with our Hanukkah decorations. For the record, a Hanukkah tree is not a thing, and we are not Jewish, we just celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas.

Sunday we got as far as putting up the Christmas tree. It is not decorated yet. Getting the 15 foot tree up and the lights working is a feat unto itself, made worse by the mice got into one part and made a nest, so there was a lot of vacuuming required. To get this tree up and the leaves looking more or less acceptable took an hour and a half. At this point, the Man had to start cooking for our Grey Cup feast (Grey cup is the Canadian football teams Super Bowl). In the next week or so we should be able to get it done. 

Wordless Wednesday - Hanukkah'ed Out

Let's Get The Holidays Started!

On the weekend we had our annual Hanukkah themed holiday party. (No we are not Jewish and yes we know Hanukkah starts December 12 this year, but this was the weekend that this party worked for us).

Uncle Chris brought us some Hanukkah gifts!  Check out his cool holiday suit! 

Zaphod taking the first one

Hailey waiting for hers while Emma jumps up with Phod's new inside ball

Emma taking hers

Emma later killed one of them. We are calling that one hers. What are we going to do when she is here for 6 months?

We can't wait for Christmas! 

25 Days of Holiday Fun In Paradise

Thanks to Dory and the Boyz for hosting this blog hop. Today we are going to share with you how we celebrate the holidays.

Christmas:

Lady and Man have no religious beliefs but were both raised in Christian homes. They both grew up celebrating Christmas. In our house we still celebrate Christmas. 

Food: Usually a full turkey dinner for immediate family (often it is us and Uncle Chris)

Presents: Very few these days, more experiences, but Santa fills our stockings.

Decorations: A huge tree and a number of other decorations. They are mostly secular in nature. 

Music: Lots of Christmas CDs. Charlie Brown being a favourite

Activities: Eating, watching movies, playing games, just hanging out, usually in our pjs

Hanukkah:

When Lady was putting herself through school she nannied for families. Several of the families she worked for were Jewish. Long story short, she fell in love with the latke (potato pancake) and the celebration of deep fried food! Who wouldn't?  Over a decade ago (Lady isn't sure if it was 2002 or 2003) the Man and Lady were looking for a theme for a holiday party and they decided to do a Hanukkah themed one. That was the beginning of a new tradition, the Hanukkah dinner. They seriously have a waiting list of people who want to be invited. Some years they do a big Hanukkah with lots of people (25 last year) and sometimes like this year it is a family Hanukkah (there will be 11)

Our holiday table

Food: Brisket or brisket inspired beef, latkes, green beans with a yellow pepper and pine nut sauce, challa (bread), jelly filled donuts for dessert. 

Presents: Lady exchanges 8 crazy nights of presents with Troy and Maggie (her niece and nephew)

Decorations: We have made an upside down tree we decorate with blue and silver. We have a number of other decorations, include a Little People play set and a beautiful Menorah. We have more Hanukkah dishes then Christmas ones.

Music: The Leevees Hanukkah album.

Activities: Sometimes w play dreidel, but mostly chatting and eating. 

Our Hanukkah Tree

25 Days of Holiday Fun

Lee: Hey Phod

Phod: Yes Hailey

Lee: I wanted to tell you about this really cool event that is coming up in Blogville.

Phod: I like cool things, what is it?

Lee: Dory is hosting the 25 days of Holiday Fun and my love Easy, Mr. Bailey and I are helping her.

Phod: 25 days of fun sounds better than 8 days of Hanukkah. What do we have to do for this fun?

Lee: It is really easy - you go over to Dory's and sign up for a day. On your day, you write a holiday post. It can be about your traditions, recipes, stories, anything related to the holidays. Then you link your blog to the blog hop. It is that easy.

Phod: It will be so much fun to share the holidays with Blogville. I can't wait.

Lee: Me neither. Let's hope all our pals go over to Dory's and sign up. Pals, feel free to grab the badge and spread the word! 

Wordless Wednesday - Not Sure About This Hanukkah Thing

Our Hanukkah Party

We had 3 tables

Sunday was our annual Hanukkah party. To be clear, we are not Jewish. We celebrate Hanukkah because I am weird  because I loves Hanukkah food. I celebrate Christmas without religious belief, so I see it as the same. It started in 2003, I think when I was looking for a different idea for a holiday party and has grown. We have Hanukkah dishes and Hanukkah decorations and Hanukkah music (oh we love the LeeVees).  I exchange Hanukkah gifts with my niece Maggie.  It is the my favourite holiday.

This year we had our biggest party yet. 21 people and cousin Emma (who is a dog). The Man, with Uncle D's help spent like 5
hours cooking latkes. The Man spent over 8 hours slaving over the stove and that isn't an exaggeration. It was a feast fit for a king. (We have leftovers, yay!)

Hailey has issues with kids and people in the house, so it is always hard. Aunt C, Uncle D and cousin Maggie arrived early (so Uncle D could help the Man in the kitchen because I am useless). After a time in her crate, Hailey was great. Then more people arrived and Hailey got totally stressed out. She went back into her crate for a while (over an hour). When we let her out, she was amazing. I didn't get a picture of it, but for a time she was laying on her bed right beside where the kids were playing. I was so, so, so proud of her. I would still never leave her alone with kids, but it was huge progress. Maggie is spending a few days with us over the holidays so we hope she will get use to her.

Phod was slightly stressed throughout the day. He was calm, but you could see he wan't sure. However, he was great with the kids.

Helping Maggie open day one of Hanukkah gift

Maggie was standing and Phod went to stand with her

Overall, while it was a tone of work, and we were exhausted when the last guest left around 6 pm (we ate after 2), it was a great Hanukkah. Although, maybe next years will be a little smaller!

Aunt C is one of her favourite people, so Hailey made sure to give her lots of kisses!

Our Hanukkah Celebration

First, I should remind everyone we are not Jewish, but we celebrate Hanukkah (we aren't really Christian and we celebrate Christmas - we see it the same). It started over a decade ago as a "theme" party over the holidays (to do something different) and has grown into a true celebration. We have Hanukkah dishes, decorations, books, music and toys.  We eat a brisket type dish, latkes (one of my favourite foods in the world),  green beans with peppers and pine nuts and donuts. This year Man did up some deep fried Brussel Sprouts. Those are a new favourite.

This year is an extra special Hanukkah because it was my niece Maggie's first Hanukkah. Maggie and I are exchanging 8 crazy nights of Hanukkah gifts (plus she will get some Christmas gifts from us too - she may be a little spoiled). We opened the first one early on the weekend (because Hanukkah started on Tuesday night and with everyone else's holiday schedule we decided to have it the weekend before). We will open the rest on the correct night.

Hanukkah is probably my favourite holiday of the year.

Here are a couple of my favourite pictures.

Posing by the Hanukkah Tree

Maggie opening her first gift - Phod looks on and Emma helps out

Maggie - she is 6 months old now

Wordless Wednesday - Happy Hanukkah!

Holidays in Our House - by Lee

Our house is a little weird. We are not Jewish and we are not Christian but we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. Our people were raised in houses that celebrate Christmas, so while they don't consider themselves Christian, they do observe many of the traditions of this celebration that have been passed down by their families.

Hanukkah is a different story. It started in 2002 or 2003. The Lady had a Jewish client who invited her to have Hanukkah dinner, and she fell in love. She insisted that the Man make some of this food. So, the first year they did a Hanukkah themed holiday party. It just grew from there. We now have Hanukkah dishes, Hanukkah decorations, a Menorah, Hanukkah books, and our Hanukkah bush. [Ok, it is just an upside down Christmas tree with silver and blue balls and some other Hanukkah decorations, but our Lady loves it more than her Christmas tree].

Christmas at our house is quiet. We don't have a big dinner, we don't visit people. Usually Uncle Chris comes over. It is just our 3 people and us. There are calls etc to friends and family, but it is low key. The Lady is ok with this, actually she really likes it. It is so chill and relaxed. Hanukkah is the stressed out holiday (minus trying to find the perfect gift).  Man and Lady go all out for the annual Hanukkah dinner with brisket and latkes and donuts. Some of their long time friends have actually thought they were Jewish (or part Jewish). It is now Lady's favourite holiday of the year. She says she thinks it is because the food so so excellent and it is really just about food and friends, like all holidays should be.

[Man and Lady's Hanukkah party has become very "popular" and legendary with their circle and there is sort of a waiting list to get invited as they try and keep it "reasonable" about 12, each year, so they can visit and enjoy it].

That is how things work here. Sunday is our big dinner. We will be debuting our wonderful Hanukkah bandanas from Mollie and Alfie's shop. [Mollie, Lady has hidden them and saved them so we couldn't eat them]. If you haven't been there, stop by, they have some really cool stuff. We will share how wonderful we look next week.

Checking out the tree

Wordless Wednesday - Getting ready for Hanukkah

Hanukkah Hangover - by Lee

Are those latkes for me?

Last night was the first night of Haunkkah and our people's Hanukkah party.  They spent the day cooking and cleaning and putting my toys away. I didn't love that.

I was very excited when some of my favourite people came. My Aunt C and Dustin and Auntie K and Uncle Chris and Darlene and some new people I didn't know. I had to bark a lot at those new people.

Everyone but me seemed to have a good time. Phody loved most of the people because they loved him more then they loved me and he got to play fetch for like 3 hours. Everyone took turns throwing the ball and saying how good he was and how great and totally ignoring me. He wasn't perfectly behaved, he ate part of Aunt C's napkin off her lap that had brisket on it. Everyone thought that was cute. If that had been me I would have gotten in trouble.  Today Phody is very tired from all the playing. I on the other hand have a sulking hangover. Because while people said I was beautiful, they all clearly loved Phody more. This morning when I went to give my Aunt C kisses (she had a sleepover) and show her how excited I was to see her by jumping on the bed, she was not happy. She said she thought how Phody just stood there waiting for love was a nicer way to wake up. I think she was wrong.

So while everyone is full from too much brisket and latkes (which I didn't get any of) and tired from staying up to late (no one had too much to drink), I am just mad that it wasn't all about me. Maybe today I will get all the love and attention I deserve. So I am saying I have a Hanukkah Hangover.

Editors note: The dogs were amazingly well behaved last night. They barked when people came in, but it was short lived and they settled right down. It was amazing!

Happy Hanukkah!

To all our friends who celebrate Hanukkah (we celebrate both at our house - not because we are Jewish, we celebrate Christmas and we aren't Christian so why not celebrate both) 

Happy Hanukkah.

Wishing you 8 crazy nights!

The blog has switched to holiday mode. Stay tuned for letters to Santa, being dressed up etc.