Pie in the Sky: Christmastime is here.....and also Channukah

...Which actually ended yesterday but I still feel the spirit! Being half Jewish, every year I get the privilege of celebrating not only Christmas in December, but also Channukah, the festival of lights. Every night, my family gathers around the menorah (which we couldn't find this year) and recites the traditional prayers (which we don't really know) while lighting candles according to the night (and also trying not to burn down the house, which almost happened one year). During the eight nights of the festival, children are supposed to get eight presents, one on each night. This year, I only received one gift, partially because of lack of funds but also because of Christmas coming about a week later. I got Good Eats: The Early Years by Alton Brown which is absolutely fascinating. It is chock full of little known facts about food. For instance, did you know that the first soy food ever manufactured in America was Baco-Bits? Weird. Anyway, I absolutely love it. For my own friends, I decided to bake them each their favorite kind of cookie/treat. One of my best friends in gluten intolerant, so I made her peanut butter cups and toffee, both of which have absolutely zero wheat. I also made oatmeal-craisin cookies (my other friend actually likes oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies, but alas, I ran out of those little chips) and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies (which make my sister sick because of an unfortunate encounter with macadamia nuts in Hawaii). It was quite an edventure making so many cookies but enjoyed it immensely. I think I'll do this every year. It takes no extra money and people seem to enjoy it more. Mappy Christmahannukwanzaaka! I'm off to good ole' NYC on Christmas so see ya'll next year!