Dear Friends,
Where to begin?!
We celebrated Levi's fourth birthday this past Monday. He is very proud of being a big boy...
Chanukah is off to amazing start with good times had by all! Our Six Foot flower menorah last night, 
Wednesday night, was a big hit! A big thank you to Ben Shamoolian of Houston Flowery for putting together the beautiful masterpiece! Photos of the event are on the website at www.chabaduptown.org/1372559. The event was covered by Channel 39 and the Houston Chronicle (if you got recordings or clippings, please share :))... Thank you to our partial event sponsors, Omri Shafran of Optimum Investments and Sarcalem & Belaynesh Zevadia Adigeh in honor of their recent birth of twins boys.
The annual Chanukah menorah parade rolled last night as well from Southwest Houston joining us for the end of the party at Chabad of Uptown while Chabad of Sugar Land lit the menorah in front of Sugar Land City Hall! Read and watch the newscasts about them on Channel 11 and Houston Chronicle...
The Houston Chronicle also had another interesting piece on public menorah lightings....
Today I donned my "Chabad Lubavitch of Texas" hat as the program director and joined Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff, the Director for Chabad Lubavitch of Texas for a private Chanukah ceremony with Gov. Rick Perry at the Texas State Capitol.
Rabbi Levertov of Chabad of Austin and Rabbi Zev Johnson of Chabad at UT joined as well. Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff congratulated Gov. Perry on his reelection and shared the message of Chanukah with the Governor. "The United States allows freedom of religion and not freedom from religion. Chanukah delivers the message of religious freedom, where the few believers won over the many oppressors." Gov. Perry thanked him for his kind words, and expresses his appreciation to have the opportunity to partake in the ceremony to be shared publicly. Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff, of Texas A&M led the prayers and presented Gov. Perry a signature Chabad at Texas A&M buckle. Gov. Perry, an Aggie, took the buckle with great enthusiasm and tweeted a picture of it from his cell phone... :) http://twitter.com/GovernorPerry.
The office released their own Press Release and video of the event that can be seen (as of now) on the home page of http://governor.state.tx.us (Click "Read More" for the entire press release and video) and on their social media feeds http://twitter.com/texasgov and http://www.facebook.com/TexasGovernor.
Tonight Chabad of Pearland had their menorah lighting with the participation of the Pearland Mayor at the Pearland Towne Center.
Tomorrow please join us at our Chanukah Shabbat Dinner sponsored in part by Dr. Louis and Sheila Train in memory of Sheila's father Harry Chaim ben Yaakov Fritman, a"h. RSVP - PLEASE...
Many more events are planned including, Houston City Hall (Sat.) Chanukah at Discovery Green (Sun.) and Hoops & Hanukkah at the Houston Rockets on Tuesday! Many more opportunities available as well at Chabad TMC (Sat.), Chabad West on Wheels ( Mon) and the Olive Press (tomorrow - Fri) at the Children's Museum. All can be seen at www.ChanukahinHouston.com.
The last day of Chanukah will be celebrated at Chabad of Uptown with a special Chanukah session for Mommy & Me. Please register on the website....
Please join us this Shabbos for services and more!
Shabbos Chanukah & Mevarchim Parshas Mikeitz
Friday, Dec. 3
6:30 pm Services
Light Chanukah THEN Shabbos candles before 5:04 pm
Please RSVP for dinner
Shabbos, Dec. 4
8:30 am Shabbos Mevarchim Tehillim
10:00 am Services
Traditional Kiddush with the best.... and Shabbos Mevarchim and Chanukah Farbrengen
5:10 pm Mincha
6:01 pm Maariv, Havdalla and Shabbos Ends
Screening of Living Torah
See you on Shabbos and a very Happy Chanukah from our family to yours,
Rabbi Chaim, Chanie and Clan.