Edit: So I just realized that today is the 5 year anniversary of when I first joined Fanfiction. To see the progression of my writing from where it began to when it is now is truly amazing because it really reinforces that practice makes perfect! Anyway, on with the story!

Chapter 4: Hanukkah History Lesson

Sam smiled as the sound of hot oil sizzled in front of her. The hot olive oil was at the perfect temperature for cooking the treat she was planning to make for herself and her daughter who laid lazily on the couch watching TV and blowing the unruly bangs out of her face. Sam couldn't help but notice just how much Danielle really did act like Danny when he was her age. Turning back to the task at hand, Sam grabbed one of the potato pancakes that she had shredded earlier and placed it in the hot oil. The reaction was instantaneous as the oil began to fry the potato pieces, turning them golden brown and sending a delicious smelling aroma into the air.

An aroma that drifted into the living room and caught the attention of one very hungry preteen. Danielle shot up quickly, sniffing the air much like her dog often did when he smelled something he wanted. Sam covered her mouth as she laughed at the young girl's reaction.

"I see that I finally got your attention," she said, easing her spatula under the bottom of the pancake and turning it over.

"I'll say. What smells so good?" Danielle asked as she hung upside down on the couch and looked at her mother as she busied herself in the kitchen.

"A special treat that I want to share with my favorite baby girl."

"I'm your only baby girl, Mom," Danielle said with a slight blush though she smiled. She loved when her parents gave her little nicknames, so long as they didn't use them when she was with her friends and they didn't embarrass her. Baby girl was one of her favorites because of how much love Sam always emphasized when she used it. A twinkle of mischief shone in her eye before she spoke again. "Unless…you and Dad have something that you want to-"

"Yeah, keep dreaming, kid. We've got enough on our plates as it is with school, being heroes and having to raise you. There is no way that that is gonna be happening anytime soon," Sam said with a role of her eyes. Not that she hadn't given thought to giving Danielle a sibling and having another baby (well technically her first she hadn't actually given birth to Danielle), but that was something that was going to have to wait until after graduation at the earliest.

"Hey, a kid could dream, can't she? Anyway, what are you making and is it almost ready because I'm starved!"

"You just ate two hours ago, Danielle. You can't be that hungry."

"But Mooooommmmm," Danielle began to whine, sliding off of the couch and onto the floor.

"Save it. You'll get to eat in a little bit, just be patient. God, did you have to get both Danny's metabolism and his stomach?"

"Well, look on the bright side: I may have gotten my physiology from him, but I got my psychology from you," she said with a bright smile. Sam couldn't help but laugh at that most likely true statement.

"You've been hanging around your aunt a lot, huh? Just be glad your Daddy's not here to hear that or else you'd be in for it," Sam said, taking the second pancake off the burner and putting it on a paper towel to dry. "Ok, they're ready. You can come eat now."

"Awesome!" Danielle yelled, jumping to her feet and running to the table. As she took her seat, she stared in curiosity at the creation on her plate. "What is it?"

"It's a latke. It's a potato that's been grated and mixed with flour and egg and seasoned with garlic seasonings."

Danielle looked at it carefully once more before picking it up lightly so as not to burn her fingers on the still slightly hot oil and taking a bite out of it. The pancake crunched lightly as she chewed it, and Danielle couldn't help but smile at the taste.

"This is amazing!" She said. Sam smiled, biting into her own and enjoying the taste. Sam could remember the first time she had helped her grandmother cook latkes and how bad she had messed up, but that didn't matter to her. The joy and happiness she had gotten from the experience was one of her greatest memories, and she was happy to know that she was about to do the same with her daughter.

"Dani, do you know anything about this time of year?" Sam asked.

"You mean winter? Well, it's cold, there's snow and Dad seemed to be in some type of really bad mood all of a sudden," Danielle listed off causally as she swung her feet.

"Yeah, your Daddy's a bit of a grouch when it comes to this time of year, but don't worry about it. I'll make sure he stays happy like a little elf until it's over. But that's not what I meant. What do you know about the holidays?"

"Oh, well, I know a little about Christmas, like how you get gifts from people, and I know that there are two other holidays, but don't really know anything about them."

"I figured not, and that's ok because I'm going to teach you all about another part of you that you didn't even know about," Sam said with a smile.

"Is that why you told Dad that you wanted everyone to leave so you could spend the day with me alone?"

"Well, aren't you a smart, eavesdropping little devil," Sam said with a smile as she tapped Danielle's nose. "Yes, that is precisely why I asked to spend the day alone with my beautiful daughter aside from the fact that I love her and love spending time with her other then when she needs to be punished for something like swearing."

Danielle stuck her tongue out, elating a laugh from herself and Sam. "So, what holiday are you gonna teach me about?"

"Well, Danielle, did you know that you are actually part Jewish?"

"Really?" She asked in genuine surprise. "I didn't know that at all!"

"Yep. My side of the family is Jewish, which means that we celebrated Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication."

"So, does that mean that you and Dad never celebrated a holiday together?"

"Not exactly. Every year, him, Tucker and I would buy each other gifts and exchange them, not in the name of Christmas or Hanukkah, but in the name of love, friendship and the close knit little family that we had made together," Sam smiled as she reminisced on the past. Looking over to Danielle, she held out a hand and placed it against Danielle's face, her thumb gently stroking the girl's cheek as a sense of love and pride washed over her. "And now…you're a part of that too. And you're the greatest gift anyone could ever have."

"Thanks, Mom," Danielle said, getting up from her seat and walking over to Sam. The two embraced, sharing a loving moment of silence before she quickly perked up. "So where do you think Dad and Uncle Tucker are now?"

"Probably doing something that they think is going to make them look more macho," she with a roll of her eyes before laughing along with Danielle once again.

"Come on, Tuck! Push!" Danny said as he stood nearby and spotted his friend.

"I'm trying! This isn't exactly easy, you know!" Tucker retorted as he struggled to push the bar up from his chest.

"Oh quit with the over dramatic excuses and just push already," Danny said with a roll of his eye.

"I can't! I've got nothing left!"

Danny rolled his eyes once more before grabbing the bar with one and easily lifting it back onto the rack. Tuck breathed a sigh of relief as he relaxed on the bench, seat dripping down his face. After finally catching his breath, he looked up and glared at Danny who had a large smirk on his face.

"Don't give me that look! You're supposed to be spotting me!" Tucker declared as he sat up.

"I was spotting you. I watched you lift the bar, I watched the bar go down, and I watched you struggle to get even one rep," Danny said.

"Dude, what kinda spotter lets the bar fall on someone!?"

"What kinda person needs a spotter for a ten pound bench press?"

"Hey, not everyone can have superpowers! It's not that easy!"

"It's ten pounds, Tucker, not a semi-truck."

"How come you don't have to do this?"

"Because you asked me to bring you to the gym and be your spotter so that you could try and pick up women and because none of this weight training is going to do me any good anyway."

"What makes you say that?"

"I can lift a bus over my head, Tuck. A bus filled with kids, might I add. I'm pretty sure I'm good on the weights."

"Yeah, well-" Tucker stopped his sentence as two good looking girls started to make their way by them. A smile broke out across his face as he began to flex his none existent muscles. Danny raised a curious eyebrow before he realized just what his friend was doing. Shaking his head, Danny patted his friend on the back.

"Tuck, take my advice; don't try to hit on a girl that's stronger then you are. Especially if they just walked out of-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, dude. If you'll excuse me," Tucker said, waving his friend off as he got up and ran after the two girls. "Hello, ladies! Have you ever taken a tour of the Mayor's office? I'd be happy to-GAHHH!" Danny could only cringe as his friend flipped over one of the girl's shoulder and throw to the ground painfully.

"The self defense class…"

Danielle happily finished her latke, wiping her hands on her napkin. She was already starting to like this holiday, especially if she was going to get to eat food like that all the time.

"So what else do we do during Hanukkah?" She asked Sam who also had just finished eating.

"A lot of different things. But instead of me sitting here explaining it all, I've arranged a very special treat to help teach you," Sam said as she got up from her seat and transformed into her ghost form. Danielle's excitement was barely being contained as she hopped off her seat and transformed too. "Follow me, Ellie!"

Turning intangible, Sam descended into the floor, heading straight for the lab. Danielle was close behind as she followed her mother over to the portal. After a quick scan and determining that no ghosts were going to escape, Sam held her hand over the thumb lock. The leaves that made up her gloves separated, coming to life as they danced around and hovered over her now exposed thumb. The scanner made a short buzzing sound as it read the complicated sequence that was involved in the double helix of Sam's DNA before beeping as the light turned green and the portal doors gave a loud hiss as they opened up, revealing the bright green swirling mass of ectoplasm that was the Fenton Family Ghost portal.

Sam wasted no time in floating over to the portal and diving in. As she emerged on the other side of the doorway, she could instantly feel the ectoplasm in the air recharging her body as her eyes flashed for a quick second, pumping the ectoplasm in her blood faster and making her feel even stronger then she already did. Danielle emerged from the portal a second later, her eyes flashing for a moment as well, indicating that she was feeling it too. The two smiled before taking off to their destination.

After almost ten minutes of flying, Danielle's curiosity became too much for her to contain anymore.

"Now will you tell me where we're going?" Danielle asked as she flew beside her mother.

"Nope," Sam said with a smile as she watched her daughter pout.

"Why not?"

"Because it's a surprise and because you look so cute when you pout."

"MOM!"

"Calm down. We're here," Sam said. Danielle looked forward and her eyes grew wide with the site in front of her. Before them stood a large citadel surrounded by gears. At the base rested two double doors built into stone walls that reminded Danielle of the medieval formation of castles she had seen in her history book. Her eyes travelled up the body of the structure that she instantly associated with a grandfather clock. Her thoughts were confirmed as she looked upon the tip of the tower that held the face of a magnificent clock. No matter how many times Danielle came here, she was still astonished by the sheer size and design of the master of time's home.

"WE'RE GOING TO SEE CLOCKWORK!?" She shouted.

"Yes! Now calm down and stop being so loud," Sam chuckled. Grabbing Danielle's hand, the two made their way inside the tower. The sounds of clanking and rotating gears echoed through the building as the two girls made their way into the main hall. "Clockwork? Where are you?"

"There is no need to shout, Samantha. I know that you are here for I have been expecting you, and you are right on time," Clockwork said with a small smirk. His eyes quickly feel on the bright smile of Danielle as she stood next to her mother. "Hello there, little Phantom."

"Hi, Clockwork. It's good to see you again," Danielle said.

"And you as well, child. Are you ready to learn about the History of Hanukkah?"

Danielle nodded her head, squeezing her mother's hand a little tighter as she tried to contain her anticipation. Clockwork turned to his viewing screen as it began to glow and he began his explanation.

"As your mother said, Hanukkah is known as the Festival of Lights as well as the Feast of Dedication," Clockwork began. The screen changed to show a building that was elegant in architecture. "It is an eight day Jewish Holiday, set to commemorate the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. So, let us go back to the beginning.

"In 168 B.C.E, the temple was seized by Syrian-Greek soldiers who demanded they all worship the god Zeus. Of course, this did not sit well with the Jewish people, but they were too afraid of the repercussions to speak out against it. Then, in 167 B.C.E, Emperor Antiochus made the observance of Judaism an offense punishable by death, and ordered that all Jewish people worship the Greek gods."

"What!? Are you serious? What kind of crazy person does something like that?" Danielle cried out.

"The same kind that steal your DNA and try to clone you in an attempt to have the perfect child, try to steal their former best friend's wife while trying to kill said ex-best friend, and who try to hold the world hostage. So in a word, Vlad," Sam said with a smirk of her own. Clockwork nodded his head in agreement before continuing as the screen changed once more, this time to a village.

"Jewish resistance began to build in the village of Modiin. Greek soldiers began to attempt to force the villagers to bow down to an idol and to eat the flesh of a pig, practices that are forbidden in Jewish culture. One officer ordered the High Priest Mattathias to acquiesce to their demands, but he refused to do so. One villager stepped forward to stand to cooperate with the guard on Mattathias behalf, but he would have none of it, so, he drew his sword and attacked the guard, striking both he and the other villager down. After that, his five sons and the other villagers attacked the other soldiers, defeating them. However, he knew he and his family could not stay in the village for they would be found and most likely killed, and so, they headed into the mountains.

"Soon, others began to join them as they too wished to fight against the Greeks. Eventually, they were victorious in retaking their land from the Greeks, and the rebels were renamed the Maccabees. Once they had taken back control, they returned to the temple, but of course by that time, it had been defiled by the Greeks. In an attempt to cleanse it and make it holy to them once more, Jewish troops decided to burn ritual oil in the menorah for eight days."

"What's a menorah?" Danielle asked, looking up at Sam.

"A menorah is a special candelabrum that Jewish people light during special times," Sam explained. "The Hanukkah menorah holds nine candles; four on each side and one special one in the center called the shamash, or helper. It's used to light all the other candles which you light one at a time for each day. So one the first day, you light one, and by the eighth day, you light all eight."

"Oh, ok. I get it now. So they were going to burn all the candles, right?" Danielle asked Clockwork.

"Yes, they were," he said, waving his staff. The image in the screen changed once more, showing the inside of the temple as the troops prepared to burn the oil, though Danielle could see that they were all distressed for some reason. "But they had encountered a very serious problem. They had discovered that they only had enough oil left in the temple to last them for a single day. Despite this occurrence, they lit the candles anyway, and much to everyone's surprise, the small amount of oil they had lasted the full eight days."

"So, every year, we celebrate this by lighting the menorah, eating special foods cooked in oil and giving out presents to all the kids," Sam said with a smile as she watched Danielle's eyes grow wide followed by a loud squeal as the young halfa began to bounce up and down.

"You mean I get presents for Hanukkah too!?"

"Yep. And Grandma Ida says she can't wait to give you all the gifts she's already picked out for you," Sam said. Danielle squealed even louder than before as she began to ramble on and on to herself about how excited she was. Sam shook her head at the girl before turning to the master of time. "Thanks again for helping out with this, Clockwork."

"It was no trouble, Samantha."

"So, tell me. Do you know how the menorah really kept the oil burning for all that time?"

"Of course I do. I know everything. I also that you wish to know, but, as you know, some things are just better left unsaid. Though, you're a smart girl. I'm sure you can figure it out," he said, winking at her. Sam smiled at the older ghosts and turned to her hyperactive offspring.

"Come, Ellie. Let's get home so we can start cooking dinner for everyone."

"Ok. Thanks, Clockwork! See you soon!" She said following her mother out of the tower.

Clockwork smiled as he turned back to the viewing screen and observing the events of that very first Hanukkah. The oil burned slowly. Unnaturally slow as the eight days went by.

"But then, whoever said that time occurred naturally?" he said to himself before clearing the screen with a wave of his hand.

Happy Hanukkah to everyone who celebrates it! I may be a little late on when the actual dates are, and if so, I'm sorry. Also, in case anyone didn't pick up on it, yes, Clockwork had a hand in the menorah burning for the eight days. Obviously that's not how it actually happened, but I just couldn't resist having him do it. Lol.

Anyway, there's another topic I'd like to ask your opinion on. With Christmas only a few days away, I will be doing a Danny Phantom Christmas of some sort. However, I am going to give you, the readers, a choice in what I do. So, below are the two choices, one being a single chapter with all the rest of these extras, the other a short story that will not go past probably 10 chapters.

Christmas Cousins Clash: It's Christmas time, and everyone is happy and ready to celebrate. Except Danielle who's not only being forced to wear a dress, but now she has to deal with her cousin Jenny once more! Not only will the two butt heads once more but the revelation as to why Jenny dislikes Danielle will be revealed! Add in the special surprise that Danny has planned, and it will be a Christmas to remember!

Dani Phantom: Christmas Crusade: After accidentally setting the evil Winter Warlord free, Danielle will have to scramble to gather her friends, family, allies and even some of her enemies to stop the evil warlord before he brings an end to Santa Claus and Christmas! "This is gonna be one hell of a Christmas. And if I don't do something soon, I'm gonna end up on the Naughty list for the rest of eternity!"

So, let the voting began. I will be holding a poll on my page, and feel free to review. But do it quick! Christmas is quickly approaching!