Cut from the Menorah Lighting Team

The Friday after Thanksgiving, we celebrate Hanukkah with my dad's family.  We woke up Friday and played a lot of tennis.  It was a perfect fall day, sunny, cool, and ideal for a day on the courts with the family.  Like most of our family, I hadn't played since last Thanksgiving, but we all had a great time . . . and as a sign of aging, I was more sore than I was after my once-a-year tennis in my twenties!

While we played tennis, our wonderful family rotated the baby-sitting duties.  I connected with Maya every four hours to feed her, but we pretty much handed our kids off every morning and saw them again for dinnertime.  They went exploring, played tennis with the very patient Brownie, played new games of Batman and on the ipad with Uncle Bobby and Aunt Carla, and bounced around between aunts, uncles and cousins throughout the long weekend.  Here Collin is laughing with Alex over a piece of tape on his eyebrow -

Bryce was two-on-one entertaining our kids -

After hours of tennis, we gathered for Hanukkah - pictures, dinner, and gifts!  Coady joined the Austin gang -

Aunt Coady and Uncle Alex -

Maya and me -

Maya and Daddy in their purples -

The boy cousins plus the newest cousin-to-be, Matt

Playing dredils with Brownie while waiting for the potato latkas to be ready -  

Maya couldn't wait for the meal, and she took a team to feed her - one person to hold her and another to keep shoveling food in her ever-ready mouth. 

Collin playing with Bryce's flute with Uncle Walter -

It was finally time to light the menorah and start the night.  Normally we light it from oldest grandkid to youngest.  But this year I was nursing Maya so Collin took my place, and since all the other grandkids were there, I got booted from my eldest-grandchild-Hanukkah-lighting duties!  Collin was quite serious about it - probably the first time we've ever let him handle fire.

And then he watched on intently as the grandkids continued to light the menorah -

After the meal, it was time for gifts.  Maya was super excited to play with her new activity center -

Collin was inundated with gifts, and we ended the night admiring our annual family calendars created by Aunt Debbie.