Holidays in Ecuador

The holidays don't feel as weird this year as they did last year. After all, last year was the first year we weren't in a cold climate for the holidays. We've always grown up with the holidays being chillier and snowier than other times of year. Quito doesn't have any of that - it's nicer in December (sunnier, less rainy) than in October or November so we get awesome weather for the holidays. For example, we helped a friend decorate a paper tree yesterday and after that, we went into the backyard and played lawn games in t-shirts and shorts/skirts. It was sunny and just warm enough, but not too warm.

Getting ready for the holidays is tough when there's no weather clues. People have an easier time here decorating palm trees than pine trees because the pines here get really dried out, as we learned from friends. Because we don't celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah is our big holiday during December normally. This year we lit the menorah that my grandma gave us almost every night - we always seem to forget one or two nights if we're out too late. We made latkes and sufganiot, both fried foods, to celebrate. Greg found a new sufganiot recipe (not Martha Stewart's) that we will be using every year from now on. It was amazing! We shared it with our friends and they were a big hit.

Soon we'll be in Cuenca for the week - we've exchanged our house with our cat sitters' house and are excited to be in a new city that we've heard so much above. Stay tuned for more!

Hanukkah on the Road

This year, we were able to have a few nights of Hanukkah at home and some on vacation. We took some photos of our celebrations for you all - enjoy!

Our first night in Ayampe we lit the candles on the beach at sunset

Greg loves lighting them!

Our candles in Quito

Last Hanukkah post - I promise!

Last night was the final night of Hanukkah. It's always a fun holiday to spend with family and we were lucky to have my aunt Smadar in town to celebrate all together this weekend. Enjoy the pics!


My cousins Shai-Li and Amit with Smadar in the background - only photo I got of them together!



Family lighting the candles on Friday night - there was no shortage of menorahs so all the kids could light one. L to R: Shai-Li, Amit, my aunt Na'ama and uncle Gil, and cousin Yuval.

Greg lighting our candles last night at home

 And our Hanukkah gift this year: a winter wonderland this morning of snow-covered trees and pockets of sunshine peeking through! I hope to have a few pictures and a blog post from the Christkindlmarkts around town for you guys so stay tuned. It's a super fun time of year around here!

Happy Hanukkah!

To everyone celebrating and not, HAPPY HANUKKAH!

The holiday of lights started last night and will go on for 8 days so if you didn't say happy hanukkah to that special Jewish person in your life, you still have some time. ;-) In the picture below, you'll see the cool painted folding menorah that my Safta Rachel got us a few years ago. It's painted on both sides with paintings of Jerusalem's old city and folds down into a rectangle - pretty nifty! This year I'll be celebrating with family again, which makes me appreciate that they are so closeby even more.

Picture of last year's candle lighting - looks more impressive when you have more candles than just one or two.