Hanukkah 2009

Samantha's first Hanukkah. She is almost 2 months old, and she pretty much has everything and won't remember, so we didn't exactly need to go crazy with gifts for her. Joshua has tons of toys as well and we didn't need to go crazy with him either. He has just as much fun opening the gifts and playing with the boxes as he does playing with the toys inside.


One of the gifts we did get Joshua is a play kitchen. There was a big debate in the house about whether the play kitchen was a "girlie" toy. The kitchen is blue and beige so it is not like it is some frilly pink kitchen. Any toy that is pretend play is good for a young child at this age. I took a poll on Facebook and no one thought it was girlie. In fact, many mentioned that they also bought a play kitchen for their son. Besides, when Samantha gets a little older, she will enjoy it too. I promised Keith for Joshua's 3rd birthday we could get him a Home Depot play tool bench if he wants.


This year was a nice celebration as my cousin Seth flew in with his family from San Francisco. (Seth is my first cousin as our mothers are sisters). He has a daughter, Zoe, who is 9 months old. That was the first time I got to meet her, and she is so adorable. Seth's sister, Jeni, lives near me in Rockville. We are more like sisters than first cousins and Joshua calls her Aunt Jeni and her husband is Uncle Mike. Below are pictures from our Hanukkah celebration together. It was so nice to get the next generation together as when Seth and Jeni and me and my brother were younger, we used to get together for these celebrations as well. It would be nice if we all lived closer as we are now scattered across the country. So, the Hanukkah celebration was very special.