Passover seder

We had a wonderful time last night at seder. I led the service while Jan organized the kitchen and the logistics of food - there was Ari's mom's homemade chicken soup with matzah balls (no sinkers!), followed by salad with gefilte fish, then Jan's chicken as the main dish accompanied by her sauteed carrots and sauteed mushrooms. Then this fabulous sweet potato dish that Sarah made and the matzah kugel that Jonathan baked. Dessert was Sarah's gluten-free kosher for Passover cake and Jonathan's chocolate toffee matzah. We all rolled out looking like matzah balls ourselves.

And I just realized I listed all the food first. Because that is the most important part of any Jewish event, apparently. The seder itself was wonderful, I thought - we used the "30 Minute Haggadah" (prayerbook) which, with embellishments, lasted over an hour. Jonathan and I had bought and received all this wonderful Judaica for our wedding, and last night was the first time we used our very own seder plate, matzah plate, matzah cover from Savta, candlesticks, and some of the kiddush cups. I felt very adult.

There were only eight of us total, which is small compared to what I'm used to, but it worked out perfectly for the first seder I led. Less people equals less intimidating, you know. :)

Table setting with Miriam's cup in the background. If you look closely (or click on the picture itself) you can see we personalized the haggadah cover to say "A Loving Pesach."

Full seder table.

From L to R: Ari, Chris, Sarah, me, Jan, Cecile, Charles. Jonathan's taking the picture.

Even the preparation was fun! Jan made charoset according to the song. For those of you who are unfamiliar, it goes "make charoset chop chop chop/ apples, nuts and cinn-a-mon/ add some wine, it's lots of fun/ make charoset chop chop chop." Then there was the prerequisite cleaning, which wasn't as much fun, but then it never really is.

The best part was after Jonathan made the kugel and was starting on the chocolate toffee dessert. He made one tray and was about to begin cleaning up. Jan and I both went, "What?! That's it?! Only one tray?!" He kindly explained that one tray was six full sheets of matzah. At which point Jan and I looked at each other, then at him, then at the tray, and said, almost in unison, "So?!" He laughed, and, needless to say, made another tray.

Here we are after everyone left. Excuse the rumpled looks on all of us, it had been a long night. (This is a good lesson: take pictures before people come over).

Jonathan and my expanding self.

Jan and me.


Jonathan and Jan. Hopefully you guessed that by now.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Pesach, wherever you are, or at least a good weekend. I am off to munch on leftovers and enjoy matzah with cream cheese and jam (which is really quite good, I can hear you scoffing from here.)