Passover 2009

WHEW! We made it safely through the waters of the two seders, with only a few casualties.

Wednesday was a complete cooking fest. I almost forgot that Sofia had school; I was on the phone with my friend at 8:30 when she mentioned it...only had 15 minutes to feed and dress Sofia! I also had two extra kids, Sam's friend and friend's sister, for most of the day, while their mom was at work.

All food was completed in time, and Laura & Lilie arrived at 2:45 and my in-laws arrived around 4pm. The two other families both arrived a little after 6, so we got down to business.

Unfortunately, one of the other kids had a complete meltdown fairly early in the evening, which meant he and his dad had to leave (dad spent the rest of the evening in the car with sleeping son - I brought a plate of food out to him). The other kids were also a bit restless. And since David and his parents were sitting kitty-corner to the rest of the table, it was a bit tough to have a coherent conversation. But we made it through the seder ok. I have a home-made, child-friendly Haggadah, and this year, Sam's class prepared discussion questions, so he led some of those.

Food was ok, but it was a rushed evening, since the kids were restless. Micah spent the entire evening "technically" in the same room as us, but he stayed at the bottom of the staircase, drawing pictures, instead of participating in the seder.

Thank heavens I'd hired my sitter, E, to be the kitchen staff. That's gotta be the best idea I've ever had - instead of having to both run the seder AND the kitchen, I could hand off kitchen duties completely: plating, serving, and cleaning. Whew!

Thursday day was more relaxed, since most of the food was cooked already. Sofia did have school, and since Laura & Lilie were here, I left Micah home with them and took Sammy to run some errands and have 1:1 time. We stopped at the craft store to get him more jewelery making items, and he spent most of the rest of the day making bracelets, necklaces, and ankle bracelets for all of us. Here's a picture of Lilie's bracelet:


I also took Sofia for a nap-drive. She didn't fall asleep until I was about to pull back into the driveway, so I drove a little more, and then I also took a nap with her in the car. Boys went outside to play for a while with our neighbor.

Guests all arrived around 6:20, and it was time to begin again. Everything was better the second night, food-wise. Nothing like an extra hour of cooking to make the brisket absolutely melt in your mouth! I'd made a second chicken soup, and more stuffing, and a chocolate mousse flourless cake. All YUM.

Kids were more participatory, except Micah and his buddy B, who spent much of the time comparing Pokemon cards and playing Bakugan. And getting yelled at by irate parents.

Sam and the two older girls were ok for the first half of the seder, but after dinner, it was tougher to hold their attention . I think the fact that David gave Sam real wine instead of grape juice didn't help, either.

The little girls were all adorable. While Lilie and Sofia and O wandered the house, the two other nursery school-aged ladies had a great time showing off all their knowledge. My haggadah is really geared to their age, with songs they know, so that was nice for them.

So here are the pictures. Micah spent some time in the afternoon capturing images (and lots and lots of useless video).

Sofia doing Micah's hair:


Lilie and a drawing board:


Me at the computer, getting the mousse recipie:


Some Micah self-portraits (notice his oh-so-fashionable glasses...):



Sofia and Lilie having a pre-seder snack:



A gorgeous shot Micah took:


Sam:


The seder table and crew:


Sofia with "darkness" glasses:


Three little ladies:


Sofia got to spend about 40 minutes cuddling with "Baba":


Lilie decided that my plastic flamingo coasters made excellent teething rings:


Princesses: