Passover

So Passover is coming faster than a freight train at night! The first seder is Monday, and I haven't even begun removing bread from my house!

I won't of course, though that's what observant Jews do. My slide into apostasy continues...

When I was a kid, we had sort of seders. There was a meal with matzah bowl soup, and more matzah, and the drinking of sweet Manishewitz wine. We never had the service part, but I remember the men all napping, post meal, on our forest green living room carpet. I also remember my brother in law Dennis proudly showing up with a challah, in honor of the holiday. Raised Catholic, he knew challah was "Jewish bread," but no one gave him the memo about Passover being a breadless holiday. I'm guessing the kosher bakery attendant snickering as he walked out the door...

Since Wifey and I were married, we've hosted seders each year. As my extended family grew, some years we had nearly 20 guests. When the Ds were little, and attending JEwish pre school, we read from the prayer/story books they'd create, and sing the silly songs about frogs, boils, and the other forms of plagues visited upon the Pharoh and his men...

In the mid and late 90s, I flirted with religion through my Chabad rabbi friend, Yossi. We actually attended a community seder one year. It lasted 5 hours, and was more onerous and painful than any dental procedure I've ever had. That evening went a long way towards convincing me that organized religion wasn't my bag...

So, I know there's some hypocrisy about celebrating the holiday at all, but there's the grandparent factor. My mother and in laws enjoy the holiday, and a big reason we're still hosting it is to honor them. My mother's about to turn 90, and my in laws are 85; at best, we're not talking about too many more seders for them.

We're having a small gathering this year. Just D2, Wifey, and me, along with my my mother, sister, brother in law (no challah this year) and in laws. D1 is finishing up in Gainesville, and will go to a secular-type seder at UF. The extended family have taken other roads, none of which lead to Villa Wifey.

So, we'll drink vodka, and share some laughter, I'm sure. Wifey has ordered chicken and brisket from Shorty's, our local barbecue place. The first time she got the meat from a place famous for our pork ribs, I cringed. And then, my mother in law tasted it and said, in her heavy Yiddish accent "Now THIS is REAL Jewish style brrrrrisket!" Talk about kosher STYLE!

So, no religosity for us. Just a get together around a dining room table, with hungry dogs patrolling the floor for any dropped food.

And hopefully, no frogs or boils.