Asheville, NC
We did indeed have a really nice time at the Chanukkah party sponsored by "our" Chabad (of Asheville), although it was an event open to the entire community. There were well over 500 people in attendance. There were so many fun things for the kids to do -- I wish they had something like this when our kids were young!
The event was held at the Crowne Plaza Expo Center, so it was a huge facility. There were about 5 different inflatable jump houses and tunnels (like an indoor playground), and a lot of crafts tables: painting, sketching, build a dreidel out of legos (plus just a lego play station), play dreidel against Judah Maccabee (with a person dressed as him, and a table full of chocolate gelt (money)). There was a face painter, gift boutique, and various tables representing the area synagogues and Jewish organizations such as Jewish Family Services and Asheville Jewish Business Organization.
The decor was very nice as well, with lovely centerpieces, balloons and tiny silver and blue stars on each table.
There was a large stage, where they had a nice band playing throughout the event (which was 3-6 pm). At one point, the kids from the Hebrew school put on a short singing performance.
And, of course, there was the food area. Mitch and I volunteered to help, and we were put to work as food servers (it would have been too chaotic for so many people to be helping themselves). There were 10 stations in total; 2 identical ones on either side of the area. The foods were: greek salad, green beans w/mushrooms, latkes (of course!), eggplant parm, cheese lasagna, and sushi, plus dessert of fruit, babka and donuts. I was in charge of serving the green beans, and Mitch served the latkes.
Of course, the highlight of the day was the lighting of the menorah, which was quite an amazing piece. Each stem was made of a clear pipe filled with pennies collected by Chabad during the year. At the end of the holiday, it will all be donated to a local charity.
I took a video of the candle lighting ceremony but unfortunately, it's over 2 minutes long and too large to post here. If you're interested in seeing it, send me a message and I'll be happy to send you a link to download (which will take a bit of time as it's about 44 MB.
When the event was over, we went home and had our own little candle lighting ceremony. First, I decorated my kitchen (putting up the holiday pot holders and towel) and we lit the electric menorah for the window:
We then lit the regular candles and opened an awesome gift from Jessica (assorted chocolates in really clever packaging):
And now starts another work week!
Dad looks like a kid in a candy store in that sushi picture.
ReplyDeleteThis event sounds amazing! When you talked about it, I didn't quite get the scale. Wow!