Merry Christmakkah...

This weekend, the celebrations began. On Friday, Chris and I hosted friends Caitlin and Steven, as well as Chris's mom and sister, for a Hanukkah dinner. Being the first time I had undertaken a Jewish meal of such magnitude, I planned it down to the wire, and it actually came out pretty ok. 

Our menu included: brisket (many thanks to Barbara Brown for the easy and delicious recipe), latkes (many thanks to Chris for peeling all the potatoes), applesauce (again, many thanks to Chris for peeling all of the apples), and kugel, which I made using my grandmother's recipe, which had to be verified and edited several times. But which was extremely delicious. 

In an effort to time everything precisely, I made the brisket Thursday night, where it tortured us by smelling delicious for three hours in the oven. We also did the apples on Thursday, by which I mean Chris did the hard part by peeling them all, and I helped him slice them. 

When we got home from work on Friday we went, well, straight to work putting the rest of the meal together. I mapped out my burners and set the applesauce on the left back burner. Meanwhile, Chris peeled potatoes. The water for the kugel noodles went on the front right burner, and while it boiled, I changed and got ready. Meanwhile, Chris peeled potatoes. I then added the noodles and tended to the applesauce, while, you guessed it, Chris peeled potatoes. When the noodles were done, I put the rest of the kugel together and stuck it in the oven. Chris, bored (and finished) with peeling potatoes, began, instead, to grate them. A hard-working goyim!

The brisket reheating in its yummy juices and the applesauce doing its thing, it came time to face the latkes. I had grated the onions and Chris had drained everything, so when the oil was heated, it was time to fry. Chris entertained our guests, and, in between sips of red wine, our potato pancakes got made. 

Rather than simply allowing everyone to eat as soon as dinner was ready, we all gathered in the living room to light the candles. When that was done, I figured I had denied my guests long enough, so we all crowded around the dining room table to eat and eat and eat. Chris's mom gave us wine glasses as our Hanukkah present, which were immediately put to use. Suffice it to say, we were very full and satisfied. 

                                            From left to right: applesauce, brisket, latkes. Yum.

                                                                         Full up!                                                          

                                                     Opening our Hanukkah presents!                                                 

 

Lovely. Will go to good use.  

On Saturday, Chris and I woke up and headed downtown to run the Jingle Bell 5K. It's a race to benefit arthritis, and included with your number, you get two jingle bells to pin on your shirt or tie on your shoelaces. The effect, as you might guess, is a very noisy race that jingles along for three miles. The weather was gorgeous, though, and we had a lot of fun. I'm a bit out of shape, but, as one of the basketball players holding signs up along the route said, "Santa will know if you walk." So, we ran it out.

After leftover brisket for lunch, we switched into Christmas mode, and headed out to buy wrapping paper, a few ornaments, and our Christmas tree. More so than paying rent, having my own Christmas tree makes me feel very grown up. Saturday night we stayed in, ate pizza, watched a movie, and decorated. 

                                                          Christmas tree in the living room. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmakkah!