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SHALOM! Greetings from rainy Seattle (although this morning there is actually a hint of sun!) I am still here although lately having trouble finding time and space to craft.  We had some basement flooding and now a forced remodel in the works.  My lovely craft room was unfortunately not spared and is currently lacking the bottom third of the wall as well the floor and all the furniture 😦  Oh well it’ll end up even better when all is said and done.  As I’ve said before, I need arts and crafts to keep me sane, especially at the moment.  I know that all of us in the Jewish community (and beyond) are still processing what happened a week ago in Pittsburgh on Shabbat and dealing with a range of feelings and emotions, from sadness to anger to fear to hope.  In the midst of that, I’ve had several requests for my yearly Hanukkah countdown calendar.  It makes sense that amidst darkness, we all want to look towards the light and celebrate who we are.  At least I know that is true for me.

Click on the image above to download your own printable PDF of the Hanukkah Countdown Calendar. For personal use only. © Made by Mamaleh 2018

So given that Hanukkah is less than a month away (first night is Sunday, December 2nd!), I designed this year’s calendar in the spirit of peace, light, and love.  As always, I used Microsoft Publisher to design the layout for both the calendar and the stickers.  This year, I again printed the calendar on my favorite Neenah Solar White cardstock and the stickers on full sheet label paper.  But as I’ve mentioned in the past you could also print the “stickers” on paper and use tape or glue or use whatever stickers you already have.

Click on the image above to download your own printable PDF of the Hanukkah Countdown Calendar Stickers. For personal use only. © Made by Mamaleh 2018

For those of you who have been following for a while and liked the addition of the Mitzvah Mondays over the past two years, I decided not to pre-assign days this year (other than candles of course).  My (now) 4th grader is in the throes of learning to plan and keep track of homework, etc. and not to mention my kids are also pretty opinionated these days about what we do (#threenager).  So, in that spirit, I’ve decided we’ll sit down sometime in the next week and plan all of our Hanukkah fun.  Here are some activities I’m thinking about for our family:

• Hanukkah craft time – you could try this or maybe this  (I have a couple of these I stashed away last year)
• Bake Hanukkah cookies
• Read Hanukkah books – here’s a list of some of our family faves if you need ideas
• Hanukkah party with our PEPS group

Whatever you decide to fill your countdown to Hanukkah with, I hope it is full of love and light!  I promise to try to post again, sooner rather than later!