For the sixth night of Hanukkah, a meme shirt. I’ve got a few of these, where the joke is based on something that was popular the year I bought the shirt, but has kind of dropped out of Public consciousness since. Do you remember the dab? #chanukah #hannukah

We are a blended family. We celebrate #Hanukkah and #christmas This year the two intersect pretty strongly with the last night of Hanukkah falling on Christmas. Hence my #chrismukkah shirt. We celebrate by having a family activity every night during Hanukkah. And tonight is a very blended family experience: going to the movies to watch Violent Night, a Christmas horror movie. It took some getting used to, but now I really love the way our traditions intertwine.

Here’s today’s #hannukah shirt. Since enjoying Hanukkah treats like latkes, sufganiyot, and gelt are unlikely to make me, well, svelte I find this one very amusing. Do you remember the solid gold dancers?They used to come on after cartoons were over on Saturday when I was a kid. I imagine the solid gelt dancers are a little rounder.

For one of our nights of Hanukkah, we took a walk. We celebrate by having a family activity each night. We saw this tree on the walk and clearly something should be in there. What do you think it should be?

I’ve always thought the word “Hannukah” was fun to say. Sweetman found me this shirt a couple of Hanukkah’s ago, and I still love it. It could totally be a catchphrase for a streetfighter game. #chanukah #hannukah #chanukahtee

and Hanukkah is underway! Today’s shirt is in celebration of the best version of fried potatoes. Not that you can really go wrong with fried potatoes and other forms either. They might be the one universally human pleasing food. #chanukah #hannukah #winterholidays

Hanukkah starts tonight! And for me that means eight days of ridiculous T-shirts. No one knows how to spell Hanukkah (Chanukah) in English. We don’t seem to know how many n’s or k’s or what the first letter is. So Llamakkah is just as likely. We love our rhymes. Plus, isn’t she cute? #chanukah #hannukah

We get a crazy amount of acorns in our yard--lots of oak trees. One of the weird things about them is how pretty they are at every stage, from pristine to mostly decayed. #Nature

This is the card that won my lunchtime game of Solforge against my husband. I misread the name of it and thought it said southside stegadon, so he was taunting my husband in a Boston accent the entire time. He must love me, because we’re still married after this. #CoSoGamers

I'm re-reading Wuthering Heights for my Classics Book Club. I was probably a teenager or very young adult when I last read it. My take this time is: What a trainwreck! Terrible people being terrible and destroying all the lives around them. So strange that this is perceived as romance in some circles. Have you read it? What's your take? #CoSoReaders

Not much in the way of leaves left on the trees--and we don't get much in the way of snow. Luckily the bark and lichen are beautiful in their own right. #Nature

I’m making this face a lot today. How’s your day going? #CoSoWriters

It's a baking day at la Casa Bryant today. I'm making my holiday challah and my house smells so good! (The kid wants to be able to take some to school for their non-Jewish friends to try, so I'm making it early). Do you bake anything special for your winter holidays?

Scenes from #todayswalk It’s still beautiful, even when the leaves have fallen and the sky is cloudy. I call that tree “ the whistling tree” because it reminds me of a character from the old Peanuts cartoons with its lips thrust out to whistle.

Last night's moon as seen from my front stoop. Isn't she lovely?

#mischiefmanaged hey, a girl’s got to get her fun where she can. (yes, I really did this at work today.) (that’s what I get for making me go into the office)

Having one of those weeks where it's hard to be productive. Not sure if it's my ADD or if the world is the problem, but the end result is a scattered Samantha. So a reminder for me (and you, too, if you need it), that's it's okay not to be productive all the time.

Maybe it’s because I used to always go to the festival of lights at the Cincinnati zoo, but fancy light displays really put me in the holiday mood.

So I was happy to get to go back to the Chinese lantern festival this year. We went on sensory night so that the kid could join us without getting stressed out. Smaller crowds, lower volume music, reduced flashing lights, and a quiet area in case we needed it. Not to mention lots of happy children with noise canceling headphones. It was lovely.

Have you guys read the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells? They were all over different science-fiction awards in the last couple of years: Nebula, Hugo, Locus. They’ve been on my TBR for a while. I just finished the fourth one and I love them! #CoSoReaders

I was using #NaNoWriMo as a momentum builder this year--not really expecting 50K, but trying to make sure I wrote on the novel every day (I'm guilty of writing everything EXCEPT the novel when the going gets rough). And it worked! Adding at least 100 words a day since November 1 will eventually get me there. #CoSoWriters