Oh NUTS Giveaway for Chanukah!

Oh yes, my loyal readers (all 6 of you...thanks, guys), the fun that you've experienced for the last 2 years is back...it's year 3 of the Ima's Chanukah Countdown!

And to kick it off right, Oh Nuts has generously offered a $25 gift certificate to one LUCKY reader!

Three ways to enter:

1. Go to the Oh Nuts Hanukkah gifts page. Choose your favorite Hanukkah Gift and leave a comment RIGHT HERE on this post with the name and url of the gift.

I will pick ONE lucky winner! You have until December 10th, the day before Chanukah!

2. Go to the Oh Nuts Facebook page and post on the wall the url and name of your favorite Hanukkah Gift. PLEASE also write "I am here via Ima on and off the Bima"

3. Follow @ohnuts and should Tweet:
Win a free Hanukkah Gift from http://bit.ly/6nIsCi Follow @ohnuts and Retweet to enter.

Absolutely full disclosure: 
Oh Nuts has agreed to give me personally a gift if I hit 40 comments on this post. 
So help me out, y'all!? Thanks! Tell your friends...

Stay tuned for more Chanukah Countdown giveaways and Chanukah posts over the next 2 1/2 weeks...

Haveil Havalim...

Mother in Israel has put up a really nice Haveil Havalim.

Go check it out and see what's going on in the Jewish and Israeli blogosphere. Much to see....


Day 22 of NaBloPoMo...into the home stretch!

Date Night!

Sharing Germs

So, my husband and I were having a fight discussion intense debate heated conversation the other day. I was in the driver's seat, getting ready to leave, and he was standing outside my window.

Sam was eager for us to leave.

We were intent on our conversation.

Finally, he shouted "we're going to be late!" (which is what, of course, I always say) and we realized it was time to end the discussion.

As he walked away, the same thought occurred to both of us.
We've both just finished reading NurtureShock, a really remarkable book about children and what we think we know and don't really know. A general common wisdom is to not fight in front of the kids - but then kids don't see the "make up" or the resolution of the um, conversation. (Go. Read. This. Book.)

So he came back to the car to kiss me good bye.
It was a nice long kiss.

Mr. Impatient in the back seat yelled again "let's go!"

And then he took a new tack:
"You're going to get sick!"

It's not a bad point.

Rituals for Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that the holiday of Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. Just one more week!

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful American holiday. It's simple - say thank you for the blessings in life and share a meal with those you love.

But often, the meal takes over, stress of family and needing a "picture perfect" celebration cause a little fraying at the edges. Creating an atmosphere of gratitude can be tricky when you're just trying to keep your 3-year-old from pulling the tablecloth off the table, don't you think?

I have created 3 different Thanksgiving services, based loosely on the idea of the Passover seder. After all, one good holiday centered around the table deserves another, doesn't it?

Feel free to read all three and pick and choose from within them! Your family might be somewhere between the longer edition and the quick version.

The first, a Thanksgiving Seder, is the longest of the three - suitable for strong attention spans.
Thanksgiving Seder

The second, a Thanksgiving Seder for Families with Young Children, is a quick version, meant to be fun and light for the preschool and elementary school set.
Thanksgiving Seder for Families with Small Children

And finally, an ecumenical version. What do I mean by that? It talks about God but it's not particularistic, i.e. not really very Jewish. (I know that some of you loyal readers aren't Jewish or share your table with people of many faiths and still might enjoy this concept!)

Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service for Families

All three include ideas for usage and suggestions for incorporating your own cultural and ethnic heritage. I hope you like it and I hope you let me know if you use it.

May your celebration be full and enriching!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Magnifying Glass....Cake!?

So what kind of cake would you make for a Secret Agent party? We discussed making binoculars out of chocolate donuts. That sounded delicious but complicated.

Instead, I settled on a magnifying glass cake.

It took 2 boxes of cake mix. Seriously, cake mix is really good stuff.
I used one box of chocolate and one box of sprinkle cake.
I made 2 rounds, 1 square, and 12 cupcakes. The cupcakes were just for kicks so as not to waste the rest of the cake mix. They went to the staff in my office!)

I recently read this piece by Gale Gand in the Chicago Tribune. Turns out, even pastry chefs sometimes get birthday cake stage fright! Anyway, I'm not in any way a trained pastry chef, all I know about frosting cakes comes from trial and error. But she mentioned that it was important to chill the cakes - which I've never done before. It did seem to help but I didn't beat the chocolate frosting enough (or something) and it was stiff and hard to work with. I thought it was just me, until I realized that the vanilla frosting was delightfully spreadable. Oh well....live and learn. It sure tasted yummy!

Came out kinda cool, didn't it? And it was delicious. One of the yummiest cakes I've ever made.

Secret Agent/Spy Party

For David' 8th birthday, he requested a spy party. I did a little research and came up with this secret agent/spy party.

Each secret agent was greeted by the Spymaster (AKA the Abba), and put their fingerprint and signature on an ID card created by the Ima. They got a notebook and pencil and lined up for some Secret Agent calisthenics and other spy warmup tricks.

We played a form of "pin the tail on the donkey" - each Secret Agent had to sign his or her name while blindfolded. Think David is cheating?

Secret Agents need to have good memories. They spent one full minute in absolute quiet (a miracle in itself) observing 30 small objects and then had a few minutes to write down what they could remember. They had a great time and took it really seriously!

The Spymaster read one story from Encyclopedia Brown, my favorite boy detective. You'd think this was a boring party trick but in fact, they were very into it!

We ended with a Disguise relay race. Every spy needs to be able to wear a good disguise. These spies had to put on a shirt, hat, and glasses and then pose for the camera - here's my 8-year-old Secret Agent...striking a pose!

Oh, and a really cool cake.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see the cool cake.

Planning parties is so much fun!