Passover with MZ, Part 2

OK, so here is the long anticipated continuation of Passover with the MZ's. Since I left you we had our two Seders at my inlaws house, where we slept the first two nights of Pesach. It was wonderful, as we shared great food and meaningful discussion of our exodus from Egypt over 3,000 years ago.

At their house I had the rare opportunity to sneak in some serious afternoon napping. WOW, was it nice to make up for some of my long running sleep deprivation! I must have slept two hours each afternoon.

Unfortunately, for some strange reason my daughter decided to go into anti-Daddy mode for the first and second nights, but got over it by day three. She's only two years old, so at this stage she's either pure love and kisses or hell on wheels. Those of you who've had kids undoubtedly understand exactly what I'm talking about. Fortunately, my 5 month old boy loved me the whole time.

The Seders are an incredible concept, and among of my favorite nights of the year. The primary purpose of the Seder is to teach the kids about our being led out of Egypt and slavery by God's hand. Everything is designed for the kids to participate, with many fun songs, props, and of course the four questions. Of the four questions, the first one is what it is all about. That is, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" That is the whole reason why we do the Seder...to get the kids to ask what's going on so that we may tell them the story of Pesach.

Anyway, I was so proud of my daughter (yes, even though she was not in daddy mode at that moment) because she actually knew the first question (mostly) in Hebrew! Not bad for a two year old, eh?

Oh, did I mention that according to Jewish tradition we are obligated to drink at least 4 full glasses of wine during the Seder dinner? It certainly helps take the edge off.

Then we had a relaxing day on Wednesday, (my daughter loved me again!) and just took it easy trying to recover from all the craziness. We finally came home after candle lighting on Wednesday night and were just completely shot. It was no rest for the weary though, as Shabbos was around the corner on Friday and we were to be hosting 18 adults plus 4 little children/babies for dinner! Thursday was a back breaker for the MZ's - making a big turkey, meatballs, mashed cauliflower, sweet potato casserole, etc, etc...

Anyway, it came together wonderfully. The food was incredible and the evening was big fun. After dinner, we had an especially lively singing of our grace after meals prayers (bensching). The MZ family also was fortunate enough to have been provided a blessing in the way of a hired server that made our clean-up a breeze. Everyone went home around 11:00 and we were ready to just collapse by that time into bed.

Not to think that was it for our hosting, mind you. Today, Saturday, we hosted two couples and their kids for Shabbos lunch. We served mostly leftovers from the night before, plus a chicken dish and a farfel kugel that my wife had prepared in advance. After lunch, one of my friends hung out with me and played a couple games of chess...it was very nice. Oh, we also drank 3 or four shots of a special Pesach liquor and had a couple glasses of wine, too, for good measure.

Anyway, that's enough for now. We have another Yom Tovim (Holy Days of rest) on Sunday night through Tuesday night when Pesach finally ends. Monday night we host our inlaws again for dinner and on Tuesday we have neighbors coming over for lunch...gotta get ready again soon!

Whew...I'm tired just thinking about it.

Chag Semayach!

-MZ