Happy Hanukkah

We've had a pretty low key Hanukkah celebration this year. No gifts exchanged between us, and just a couple of friends over on Sunday night for some latkes (you can find the recipe I use in this post from two years ago). Hanukkah really snuck up on me this year, even though it's not especially early. I think I'd just been caught up in all my work/house/general craziness stresses and suddenly it's the middle of December. Even Christmas seems to have caught me off guard, and it's not as though that holiday ever changes its date!

In any case, I've got two more days of work and then two full weeks of vacation, one of which will be spent in Florida with Jared's parents. I'm so excited to have almost a whole week off next week. It'll give me time to do some last minute shopping, work on the house, and finish up some projects. This year, I gave myself complete permission to not make one gift. I didn't even go on my crazy cookie baking binge that I've done for the past two years. I still feel a little sad about not doing it, but you know what? It has been totally liberating. No crazy late night baking sessions. No last minute trips to the thrift store to find just a few more tins. No driving all over the city in a blizzard to deliver the tins or trip after trip to the post office to mail them off to all corners of the world. No frantic knitting or sewing sessions.

Okay, who am I kidding, I love all that craziness. But not this year. I have so many years ahead of me to establish and keep on with my holiday traditions, that I think I'll be forgiven if I take a year off here or there, don't you?