Passover

Happy Passover. Grandma's family's Seder was back at Wendy's this year and bigger than ever. I did not have time to count how many people were there, but it had to be be close to 60 and with a half dozen of those, under five, it was a little wild. Gus was very overwhelmed. When we sat down for the Seder he wanted a matzo ball, "Now!" He did not like "that guy" (Cousin Chaz) leading the Seder. He perked up when Wendy brought the Havdalah candle in, but then freaked out when he learned it was not for him and that he had to share it with everyone. He also started crying when everyone was singing Dayaynu, which was surprising, since he loves that song. I was sure he would have sung along.

He was not the only one stressed out. Cousin Shana completely lost it when it was her mom's turn to read from the Haggadah. She wanted her to read 'Goodnight Moon.' (Too cute.) And I heard cousin Benjamin had a melt down during the soup course, because Gus had his own spoon and he did not, but I did not see it because I was off with Theo. Gus had a final meltdown when I tried to feed Theo a banana (he wanted to eat like a monkey). We were ready to call it a night, but then we were told about the ping-pong table in the basement. It was a huge hit with Gus. When he saw it he said "Tennis!" and Uncle Michael said, "Table Tennis." So Gus played "table tennis" while we ate in shifts.

Theo handled his first Passover like a champ. He let everyone hold him and pinch him and make comments about his rolls, with very few tears. Despite the chaos, I managed to snap a couple of pictures of him.



Very unfortunately, we did not make it to the second Seder at Grandma & PopPop's house. Theo woke up at 6:30 am and threw up. Jonathan and I both had upset stomachs, sore throats and runny noses so we thought it was best for us and everyone else if we left. We had a sad and lonely dinner, yet very tasty. Since we were suppose to be out of town we had no food in the house, so we ordered pulled beef brisket (brisket is very Passover) from the barbeque joint down the street. Gus kept calling the pulled beef "hamantaschen meat," which is very funny since hamantaschen is a cookie you eat at Purim and has nothing to do with Passover. I think he linked it due to the Passover book we have been reading, 'P is for Passover.' On the 'H' page he always says, "H is for hamantaschen," though the book actually reads "H is for haroset." How he knows hamantaschen starts with H, I do not know, but it is fun to say. Kind of like Obama.