Passover (II)

Tonight's festivities were too whirlwind for pictures, sadly, but very experiential. We were again in the tent, and the task of the night was to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt. When we got to the part about having to leave quickly, we talked about what that would be like -- as in, what would we pack? I had suitcases at the ready: the boys hurriedly threw toys into them and ran around the playroom with their roller bags. Jordan was quite fierce as Moses, shouting, "Let my people go!" Then he led the way through the Reed Sea, which was simulated by two blue sheets wiggled energetically by Dale and me. There they were, escaping from Egypt with their roller bags. At last we were free to have dinner.

Passover (I)

We like to spread Passover out over a few nights, to make it less onerous and more fun for all involved. It really started yesterday, with a truly grand quantity of cleaning done pretty much entirely by Dale. A truly thorough sweeping and mopping turned up an amazing quantity of chametz. Jordan was delighted to sweep some of it into a paper bag with a giant blue feather he had gotten at religious school, and according to tradition, we took the paper bag outside last night and burned it. Way cool. I hope we are not struck down by lightning for doing the bedikat chametz without actually intending to keep kosher for passover... We're just not up for that level of observance.

Tonight we assembled the seder plate, matzah, juice, and salt water, using my cake platter as a seder plate and substituting arugula from the farmer's market for parsley. (It just has to be greens, right?) Then we carefully brought these fine items upstairs, and did the first few blessings (the openers and the karpas).... in a TENT. In the playroom. (Which Dale had not only cleaned to a shine, but had also totally rearranged and reorganized. wow!) We pretended we were camping in the desert. After just a few minutes of ceremony, we went downstairs for a delicious dinner of slow-cooked farmer's market lamb, root vegetable kugel, and radishes. Delicious. The lamb was shoulder, rather than shank, which is why the bone on the seder plate is not the usual shape. Aaron tried to eat it and said it was too crunchy.

Twenty questions

Jordan and Aaron are both very into "Twenty Questions" lately. Jordan is downright sneaky: his recent selections have included a water skater, a chimaera, and air.

Aaron is less sneaky but entirely charming. This morning he said, "I have a trunk, big tusks, and stompy feet. What am I?" He was delighted when we guessed correctly.

Thiiiiis much

I took the boys out to a favorite restaurant.

Jordan: "You know how much I love mac and cheese? I would have to attach my hands and then split my body in half to make my hands go so far apart to show how much."
Rachel (loving the idea but distracted by a detail): "Attach your hands? To each other? How would that work?"
Jordan (not distracted): "Not to each other. Attach my hands to the two halves of my body, to hold it up."