Happy Hannukah! Day 6

Also Merry Christmas if you're celebrating. I just got home from Virginia because I have to work the evening shift starting tomorrow. Lucky boyfriend, with his cushy desk job, doesn't have to come back til Wednesday (and even that is mostly because I asked him to come home and spend New Years with me). Tonight's menorah is looking about ready to start a forest fire... almost full!

I had to stop in Charlotte and change planes. Charlotte is a really nice airport. I got a great tour because I landed in Terminal E and left from Terminal B. It had this cute tree-lined area with rocking chairs. Southern charm!

Here are the highlights from Christmas dinner which featured 2 kinds of fish (Parmesan crusted tilapia and sweet chili salmon- both delicious!), and some yummy veggies. There was also an amazing-looking ham that made me regret giving up pork. I regret giving up pork about once a month, but Dan doesn't let me give in. Gingerbread house was made by the host's (Dan's parents' next door neighbors) 3 y/o grandson, who happens to live in Houston, only a couple miles from my house! It's a small world.  He also left cookies for Santa, a carrot for the reindeer, and a note telling him not to fly to fast. Adorable!

Last night I attended my first ever Christmas mass. Its pretty awesome how they bring in the baby Jesus at the midnight mass and set him in the manger. This morning was low key, but there were presents. Here's the random loot I could fit in my small carry-on suitcase (the rest will be shipped over some time TBD, or we'll buckle and check a bag one of these times):

On the left is my ornament. Dan's parents buy everyone in the family an ornament, label it with their name and year, and then hang them on the family tree every year. It was especially cool as a newcomer to see all the old ornaments like "Baby's First Christmas" for each of the kids and the ones with terribly glued macaroni art.  Its pretty cool that they got me one too. Hopefully we'll be there next year to put it back on the tree! 

Ok enough about my awesome vacation. I have to sort laundry and then get to bed. I like to sort laundry at night so I can pop some in first thing in the morning. Plus the candles haven't burned down yet, and I was only kidding about starting a forest fire I hope. Jews don't blow out candles, we let them burn all the way down. Maybe I'll explain that one some time, but in the meantime I have tonight's factoid:

Q: How do you spell Hannukah?
A: Actually you spell it like this: חֲנֻכָּה. But since we usually write things in English you can write it starting with an H or a Ch (the actual letter is a coughing up phlegm kind of sound which has no analog in English), with any number of Ns and Ks you feel are appropriate, and ending in A or AH. Spell it however you want: Hanukkah, Hanukah, or Chanukka. Whatever, we know what you mean.
To illustrate my point, I offer this Twitter Exhibit A. (FYI- Chabad is a sect of Orthodox Judaism... yes, orthodox Jews have Twitter too!)

That's right, they can't even decide within the same sentence how to spell it.

I think this is the question about Judaism that comes up most often- how to spell X holiday name. The truth is Hebrew is a language that is so different from English, that it'll never really look right. So go wild. Shove some extra N's in there if you want.

Programming note: Find past nights of Hannukah posts here.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and good night!