Our Chanuka celebration was loads of fun!  Robyn did a great job with the decorations and the photo booth - you can find some photos on our website (go to tassisterhood.org and select "photos" from the menu) and more will be posted soon.  A big shout-out to our photographer, Robert Blachman!
Coming to celebrations like the Chanuka celebration is a great way to get to know other Sisterhood members and make friends.  Another way is to pitch in and help out on one of our committees.  When you help set up or clean up an oneg, extended kiddush, general meeting, or fundraiser, you schmooze with the other helpers and get to know them. 
We have an oneg substitute list that we go to when one of our oneg teams needs a substitute, but it is outdated.  And we don't have lists of women we could call someone for help with general meetings or fundraisers.  Plus, we have new Sisterhood members (and Friends!) that we would love to see on our lists, and there are women who have been Sisterhood members for a while, who could not have helped out before, but can now.
Can we call you when we need help?  If you are willing to be called when we need help with set-up and/or clean-up for onegs (Friday nights), Extended Kiddush (usually Saturday mornings), general meetings (Thursday nights) or fundraisers (usually Saturday nights or Sunday mornings), please reply to this email and let us know.  Let us know if we should put you on all four lists, or if some of the events work better for you than others. 
Replying to this email doesn't commit you to work any particular event, it just means that if we need help, we might give you a call.
And if your life doesn't permit you to be so involved right now, we totally understand, and we would love to hear from you when it does.

​This comic cracked me up because my brother had to get a special dog dish to force his Great Pyrenees puppy to eat more slowly, because she was gobbling her food so fast she would then throw up - J. 

We hope you are coming to our Sisterhood Chanuka celebration this Thursday (Dec 21, 7pm).  If so, we would really appreciate it if you would reply to this message with a quick "I'm coming!"   Lately, people have stopped RSVPing, and our hard-working program committee is stressing out over how many people to expect.
Did you get your gift for the gift exchange yet?  The target value for gifts is $15 and we request no scented items, please.  As usual, we will be serving latkes - a hearty THANK YOU! if you are one of the people providing them.  If you have not signed up to provide latkes and would like to, let us know!
Sisterhood members provided gift cards for flood victims and Judaica for both Northern California fire victims and Houston flood victims.  Now the latest disaster has struck close to home.   If you would be willing to provide gift cards (Target, grocery, Home Depot, etc.) for Ventura County fire victims, bring them to the Chanuka celebration, and Sisterhood will pay to send them to a Ventura County Temple for distribution to needy families who have lost their homes.  Too busy to get to a store and get gift cards?  You can simply write a check to Sisterhood, and we will convert that into gift cards.  Write "for fire victims" in the memo line so that there's no confusion as to what the donation is for.
Found this little guy on the internet and had to share!  The Hebrew translates as "Happy (and tasty) Holiday!"

Sisterhood has added events to our calendar, and we thought you might like a list of all of our currently planned events for 2018 (plus our upcoming Chanuka celebration.)
December 21, 7pm (Thurs.) - Our annual Chanuka celebration (Latkes! Soufganiyot! Gift exchange!)
January 15 (Mon) - Deadline to order your 2018 Mahjongg card
January 18, 7pm (Thurs.) - Tax preparation
February 10, 7:30pm  (Saturday) - Bingotini
February 20, 7pm (Tuesday) - Gender Identity - note that this is on a Tuesday!
March 1-4 (Thurs-Sun) - Fried Leadership conference
March 15, 6pm (Thurs) - Sisterhood Seder
March 22-26 (Thurs-Mon) - MahJongg cruise
March 24, 7pm (Sat) - Women of the Wall speaker
April 19, 7pm (Thurs) - Israel celebration
April 29, 8am (Sun) - Pala casino trip
May 11, 7:30pm (Fri) - Sisterhood Shabbat
May 17, 7pm (Thurs) - Telling your story
June 3, 10am (Sun) - Volunteer recognition luncheon
June 24, 8am (Sun) - MahJongg Tournament
July 8, am (Sun) - Area Day
October 18-21 (Thurs-Sun) - WRJ-PD convention (San Diego)
Also, the 4th Wednesday of every month, 6:15pm is our MahJongg instruction and casual play
If you can't find this email and want to know a date or time, go to our website - tassisterhood.ORG
(don't go to tassisterhood.com - that's the TAS Sisterhood in Florida!)
And some Chanuka humor:
Mom:  Where are all the jelly doughnuts?
Dad:    It's a miracle!  I thought I only had space for one, but in the end, I ate eight!
Hope you have a Happy Chanuka!

Time for the annual debate - Is it spelled Chanuka?  Hanukkah? Channukah?  (The spell checker thinks it's "Hanukkah".)

However you like to spell it, let's celebrate!  Our annual celebration and gift exchange will be Thursday, December 21 at 7 pm.  Bring a wrapped gift valued about $15 for the exchange.  Please no scented items. 

As usual, we will be serving latkes and we are looking for volunteers to make them.  If you are willing to provide latkes, please tell Alyce at [email protected] (or just reply to this message.)  You can make them in advance and freeze them, and we will heat them up on the 21st.
​
Should we sell this T-shirt in the Judaica shop?