Chanukah sameach!

One of the advantages of following the Jewish calendar is that December is a pretty calm month - not like the whirlwind of April-ish (Pesach and the cleaning thereof) or the marathon of September/October (Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur/Sukkot/Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah and maybe a couple other special days my ever more sieve-like memory is forgetting at the moment). Chanukah is a fun but minor holiday - especially if one doesn't have children and isn't trying to compete with the extravagance of Christmas.....

With the surgery (which was fairly easy; it was the week plus of not driving afterwards that made life interesting.....but not going anywhere has kept my usual December annoynce at bad Christmas music at a minimum. although the various medical offices I've been to have been playing it as well.....why can't they at least play the good stuff?), I've been even more laid back than usual. I have a personal minhag of adding a new hanukiah each year, but I didn't get one this year. No big deal, as I do have five ;-) Maybe I'll get one on sale next week, says the Scots/Yankee ;-) [Aunt Joni: don't worry - I did manage to get the ingredients for trifle for Dad......wouldn't want him to miss out on that.......]

Dad arrived yesterday, and the weather here was less than great, so his fatigue and the icy conditions (I want snow, please; lots and lots of snow - we dont; get much this far south...... ice stinks......) led to us having a nice lazy day at home...... Jez had no problem getting in the right mood:

On the knitting front, I've almost finished with the major secret project that I've been working on for several months, so I'll soon be able to post pictures and go back to showing an occasional UFO/WIP.