Happy December!!

This month is going to be an exciting one!!


Since I was not raised in religious surroundings and my dear partner was I plan on teaching the girls a LOT about this month.


First week, 5th-9th will be all about the Christian celebration of Christmas. I will be teaching the girls about the Birth of Christ. We will do nativity scenes, read stories, color pictures and maybe write a nice letter to Jesus. On Christmas Day we plan on visiting my IL's so I plan on backing a birthday cake for Jesus to take over there.
The second week, 12th-16th we will learn about secular Christmas. We will make Santa, reindeer and snowmen craft. We will read Christmas stories about Santa and decorate our house. We will bake chocolate chip cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and leave out some milk for him and carrots for the reindeer.

Not our tree

Jolly man in Red

The third week won't start until the 20th, where we will celebrate Hanukkah til sundown on the 28th. During that week we will light a Menorah every night, although on Friday we will only light it for the traditional 30mins, instead of the 1 1/2 hours that is normally done for the Sabbath. We will play dreidel games, the girls will receive candy coins on that day and we will read about Judaism and the meaning behind Hanukkah. Last night we bought a paint your own dreidel kit that came with 3 dreidels, 3 sets of paints and 3 paintbrushes for 5 dollars are Target.

Dreidels

Menorah

Okay I am not religious, nor have I ever been. I have tried different churches throughout my life(including a Unitarian Universalist Congregation) and have found no where I feel comfortable. During my research of Judaism I have found a.....connection. Now I am not saying for certain if I am or am not going to follow that route. I know there are a lot of things to consider. But for once I have something that speaks to me.

 I will be the first to tell you that I don't really feel comfortable with organized religion. To me, religion is a personal thing and I find it hard to share an experience like that with anyone else, let alone a room full of strangers who I don't know. But I can't ignore the fact that I have been spending half my life looking for a connection to God without Jesus and now I have found it.

Well that is my 2 cents. I don't know where I am going to go with Judaism. I need to study it more. Maybe go to service one day. But for now, I will read, read, read on everything I can find before I make any decisions.