Happy Chanukah- A personal post

For my holiday giveaway press here

Happy Chanukah to all my Jewish friends!! Tonight we light the first candle of Chanukah.

This is a long and personal post so please read only if you want:

Chanukah is my favorite Jewish Holiday for many different reasons and I just wanted to share some of my heritage and traditions here on my blog too. However since I schedule most of my posts, I had written this one long ago and things changed since then. So I'm sharing my traditions but I'm also sharing something a bit more personal and sad below.

 These are my favorite Chanukah Traditions:

1. Getting together with family and lighting the Chanukiah's  (menorah) candles to remember the miracles of Chanukah.

2. Eating Sufganiot (jelly filled doughnuts that are just so delicious, better than any other) and latkes. Yum Yum

3. Playing spin the dreidle with my kids.

4. singing Chanukah songs and remembering to believe in miracles!!

I'm usually not one to share a lot of personal stuff on my blog or Facebook. However I understand how it is actually quite therapeutic to write about how you feel and send it out there. So here I am pouring my heart out today because truly I don't know what else to do. I just feel it is really important that I write this today not only for me, but for those who are going through something that is affecting your life. I want to reassure you that you have my love and light shining upon you and that you are never alone. 
This morning when I woke up I found out that my last grandmother had passed away. She had been sick for the past few months, so we knew it was coming. Its hard to explain what I feel. I wasn't really close to her although she was present all throughout my life. However, I have an overwhelming sense of loss. Its not a loss of a person but its the loss of a whole generation. This was the generation that suffered so much and worked so hard to make an imprint in this world. This was a generation that we were told as kids to always remember because they went through so much in their lives. 

I feel sadness for my parents who now don't have their parents anymore. I know how close I am to my parents and how much they support and love means to me and it is heartbreaking for me that my parents won't have that from now on.
This month I'm also saddened by all the people who are suffering around me. My heart fills with sadness and hopes for miracles for them.
Chanukah is the holiday of miracles and I pray and hope that all of you who need a beacon of light to  light up your way feel the love and light I'm sending you right now. You all know who you are as I don't want to mention any names. Even those who don't know me but I hear of your sadness and loss, I'm praying for you too.
Generations come and generations go. This year my sister had a baby girl. She was named after my other grandmother who passed away 2 years ago. Now this grandmother passed away and I can really see how the circle of life evolves.
I was told something very beautiful about why we light candles. A candle is like a person's body and the flame is the soul. You light up a candle because without a flame it is just wax. Without a soul a body is just a body. A candle light is eternal and so is the soul and so we light candles to remind us that the soul is eternal.
I am praying and hoping that anyone who reads my post here or on Facebook knows how much I love them. It is the love of one human being to another. the love of one soul to another.
May all my grandparents rest in peace. Each couple together at last watching over us.
I want to bless us all, that we may never know suffering and may we always have health and happiness throughout your lives. Amen.

I created this tag for the Prima ArtZine last month.

I used the "All about me" collection to create it. I cut the blue chevron paper in the shape of a Menorah and then cut out the blue drops from the raindrop paper to create the flame. I decorated the tag with blue flowers and then added some yellow Shimmerz paint behind the flames to make them glow

Materials:

971090- All about me: love the rain

971069 - All about me: All in the mix

960087- Sunrise sunset 6x6 paper pad

566937- Liberty medium rose

566944- Liberty large rose

571825- Abbey flowers

570354- Say it in crystals

558949- Chipboard stickers

562984- Sunrise Sunset Canvas Alphabet Stickers

Other materials: White gesso, cheesecloth, Shimmerz: sunny side up, Blue seam binding.