Why I love Passover

The holiday is over, but I for one am sorry to see it end for this year. Here are some of my Favorite Things About Passover:

1. The obvious "if the Pesach story hadn't happened, we would still be slaves in Mitzrayim." Aside from being thankful for NOT being a slave in Mitzrayim (although sometimes I am a bit of a slave here at home), I appreciate the opportunity each year to appreciate freedom. What does it mean to be free? What rights and responsibilities come with freedom?

2. Limited Passover dishes. Because we always have company for the holiday (seders, and at minimum Laura and Lilie for a few days), I have full serving sets for both meat and dairy dishes. But I only have a few pots and pans to use. I enjoy not having to rumamge through the mountains of junk in each cabinet to find what I need.

3. Corning Ware. When David and I were married, we got several nice sets of CorningWare baking dishes. We only use them at Passover. Because they are technically glass, I can use them for either meat or dairy. There are a variety of sizes in the collection, so I can fit just about anything. They go in the oven, the microwave, the freezer, or the dishwasher.

4. My wedding china, which we only use for seders. (As lovely as it is, I can't imagine having to be that careful about not dropping or breaking things all year!).

5. The food! Brisket. Homemade chopped liver (it was YUMMY). Chicken soup. hardboiled eggs. Matzo brei. Fresh-squeezed orange juice. Those oddly tasty cake mixes. Not really anything that couldn't be made at other times of the year, but certainly things that don't get made very often.

6. Dried fruit. I love dates, figs, apricots, prunes and raisins, and at Passover I can indulge (good for the digestion!).

7. A clean house. It's a little topsy-turvy. We have seders in the living room. There are piles of non-Passover kitchen towels in the upstairs hallway. Toys have been moved to the basement to make room. There are boxes in the family room. But everything gets cleaned, before and after, and it's a chance to take inventory.

8. I just really didn't miss bread. Honest. I'm considering joining Sofia on the wheat-free diet now, although I might continue with spelt matzo (if I can afford it!).

9. Making a big dinner for friends and family. I LOVE having seders here. I really really do. Each person who attends brings their own particular personality. No matter how insane it gets, it's still fun. And having help in the kitchen (my sitter worked for us both nights, plating foods and washing dishes) made a HUGE difference in the stress level!

10. Spring is here. It took most of the holiday, but yesterday was finally a lovely playground-worthy day.

The only things I DON'T like (or at least things I miss):

1. Espresso. During Passover, I make Turkish coffee in the coffee press. It's not the same. Tasty, but not the same.

2. Crumbs. There were matzo crumbs EVERYWHERE!

3. Beans. We don't eat legumes during Passover, and I didn't realize how much edamame Sofia and I usually eat until we couldn't have any.

4. SUSHI. We also don't eat rice on the holiday. I guess sashimi would have been ok, but tough to find a kosher place around here.


5. Potato starch. Something has to hold all those Passover dishes together, but does it have to do such damage to the delicate tummies in my house?

Not bad, really.

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So the boys were on vacation all week, but Sofia did have school (she's off next week). Sam spent the week with my parents (we went down for the weekend), which meant that Micah and I had 1:1 time every morning. We went to the mall on Monday (he got a bunny at Build-a-Bear), Chuckie Cheese on Wednesday (I got some homework done), shopping or errands each day. Tuesday afternoon I took both of them to see "Monsters vs. Aliens". Sofia was terrified until she finally fell asleep in my lap. Wednesday afternoon, Micah went with some friends to Monster MiniGolf, and Sofia managed to sit nicely in her stroller while my friend L and I had pedicures. Yesterday I took them to a playground for several hours.

Photos of the week:

Lilie reading the dictionary:


Attempts to get the 5 Ferraro grandkids (those are my nieces, Hannah & Julia):



The "triplets" annual picture (the twins are only 6 weeks older than Sam):


Visiting my in-laws' luggage & trophy store on Sunday, Sofia crawled into the window:





The playground yesterday:


Sofia was VERY determined to figure this thing out:




Sofia enjoys one last Passover treat, homemade strawberry ices: