Put on your yarmulke, it's time for Hanukkah!

I don't want my blog to become too Christmas-y. Although Christmas is the holiday I celebrate, I'm more of a "Happy Holidays" than a "Merry Christmas" kind of person. I took enough of those weird college courses that taught nebulous, unattainable ideals about diversity to know that we have to celebrate all people. But, you know, not single them out. Or point out how we're different. But don't say we're all the same, either! Appreciate differences but make everyone feel welcome. It's not a melting pot, it's a stew. Or something.

My point is, what the hell were half the professors at my college talking about? They needed a giant dose of the real world to get them to shut their traps

Oh, I mean my point was, yesterday I went to a Hanukkah party! It was hosted by my friend and training partner, Amy.

My contribution to the party was cookies. I considered making something fancy from the cookie runway, but I decided to go with the classic Toll House instead. But I wanted to put blue M&Ms in them for Hanukkah. Target only had the red and green Christmas M&Ms, so I had to go to two other stores to find blue ones. I finally ended up at Party City, where a small 7-oz bag of all blue M&Ms cost $5.99. The M&M-Mars company sure isn't being fair to our Jewish brothers and sisters. I'm thinking boycott!

Anyway, I made these cookies, which I photographed in various stages of development, a la the blog Smitten Kitchen. Here's the batter:



Here they are on the cookie sheet:


And here they are in a too-Christmas-y plastic container:

Anyway, the party was super fun, and Bill, Nathan, and I all had fun hanging out out with our various demographically-segregated groups. You know what I mean? At parties, it's always the woman in one room, the men in another, and the kids somewhere running around in packs together. Which is a phenomenon I kind of love, because I hang out with a man and a child all the time, but I don't always get to hang out with other women.

But I don't have pictures of any people at the party, because sometimes I don't know if random strangers want pictures of themselves and their kids on the Internet. You really have to think about the dangers of this kind of widespread photo distribution when you write the 23,592nd most popular blog on the Internet.

So, no pictures of people. But I did take pictures of latkes!

First off, this cute latke plate:



And here are the latkes:


So, as you can see, there were actually two different latke plates, because there were a lot of latkes. And I ate most of them, I think. People, it is hash browns (good) fried (good) into pancakes (good). And the dips are applesauce, which provides the sweet/savory combination I love (the one behind my future invention, chocolate-dipped bleu cheese), and sour cream (which should be put in a pool so we can swim in it).

After dinner the hosts lit the menorahs:


Those cookies in the background are not from the Jewish culture; they are actually the Italian pizzelles. Because, you know, diversity.

Then we all ate the traditional Hanukkah red velvet cupcakes. And also my cookies got totally eaten up, which is good because I admit that I feel really insecure when I make something for a party or potluck and it doesn't get eaten.

After that I hung out with the other moms and complained about various people we know in the community. I believe in Yiddish this is known as kvetching.

And then my little family dragged our overtired, latke-filled selves back out in the cold, warmed by the afterglow of a pleasant evening with friends.