It's February, so, Happy - belated - New Year?

This year for your holiday present,
We didn't get you a stuffed pheasant,
Nor something equally unpleasant.

Indeed for your celebratory gift
We didn't get a fiery serpent out of a rift,
Or an old-timey ghost wearing a shift,
Nor did we bury gold in sand for you to sift,
Or anything else that would leave you miffed.

For your Hanukkah boon
We won't put you on a crazy giant hot air balloon
Blasting skyward to the moon
Steered only with a hand-carved wooden spoon,
Or force you to listen to a screeching loon croon a never ending tune.

For 2017's token of appreciation
We won't ship you off on a dreary vacation
With a third-class ticket from the bus station
To an unknown foul-smelling location.
Instead, we made you this stop-motion animation -
Please enjoy our heartfelt creation!

Our Gift to You

We had an amazing Christmas Day.

When I say that, I don't mean that we sat around a tree opening presents and high-fiving Santa - that stuff we do 8 days in a row every Hanukkah. No, our Christmas Day was spent in our basement, in a makeshift movie studio, knee-deep in Legos, cardboard, clay, markers and pencils. That's right, folks. The four of us spent twelve mostly uninterrupted hours on making the world's latest and greatest stop-motion animation Hanukkah movie.

This movie was our gift to our families, and now it is our gift to you, random internet strangers. Are we the next Ray Harryhausen? Probably not. But the kids loved working on this so much, they have demanded that this become an annual tradition. That counts as an unqualified success in my book!

So without further ado, allow me to present "Shamash: The Hero of Hanukkah." Enjoy!