Trip to Israel, Dec-Jan : First weekend in Raanana And lighting of the first candle We started the Chanukah celebrations with sevivon-shaped boxes of goodies from Grandpa Emanuel While I finished unpacking, the girls chatted to their dad via SKYPE. I came off the plane with a mind cold (not surprising) but today the flu symptoms got a lot worse. The girls got their heavy dose of Chanukah related information from TV Spending quality time with grandma Eti and Hop (the Israeli childern TV channel) The girls were hit hard by jet lag. Alma woke in the morning at 6 am and by 6:30 insisted we should have breakfast. She was very tired all morning and ate very little but only fell asleep at noon, and then had her 8 hours sleep. Hahgoot was slow, in delay but relaxed and in a good mood. Tonight it was the lighting of the first candle, so my parents arrived to light it with us. Despite my request that they arrive between 4 and 5 pm, my parents only arrived close to 7 pm. The girls were beyond tired. I gave them a bath and was about to put them in bed when they arrived at last. My father had the honour of lighting the first candle and reciting the prayers. Hahgoot is wearing the weighted snake as her stimming levels were really high due to the tiredness and dealing with the guests and unexpected surprises The girls were thrilled with the cool laser-shinning- music-playing sevivon from the grandparents Atzmon (left) and the fancy sufganiyot (right) Alma got a giant sevivon that plays the Lambada when turned Alma was afraid at first from the sevivon Hahgoot got but gradually relaxed when she realized it was only lights! My dad tested Hahgoots Hebrew reading with a book he brought her and was positively impressed. The girls kept the grandparents busy till 9 pm. I got cold medication at last (from my parents) and was looking forward to a much better night sleep. That didnt happen, though, as Alma woke me up 8 (!) times(toilet, hungry, came into my bed, wanted me in her bed... You name it, we did it...). Didnt sleep a wink. In our next presentation: Our first week in Israel and celebrating Chanukah