Passover Seder Dinner

Kids at the Seder table
Coley Toley

Tonight we headed over to Mom-Mom and Saba's house for our first Passover Seder dinner celebration. As always, Mom Mom put on quite the feast, but first came an explanation of Passover, then the blessing and lighting of the candles, and reading one of the versions of the Haggadah, the story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt. Oh, but did I mention that we had six kids three years of age and under?? And we got to Mom-Mom's around 6 ish, the even started around 6:30 and did I also mention that Tripp is eating EVERYTHING he can get his hands on these days? So the poor lad was starving and parsley dipped in salt water and matzo was not going to cut it for him. Baxter went down like clockwork at 7 which gave us two extra hands to tag team our hunger boy and still enjoy the festivities of the table. Did I mention that it's tradition to drink four glasses of wine?!? I like this holiday!!! The dinner started with dipping parsley in salt water. No comment. Then came more reading, breaking of matza, eating a matza sandwich with a mixture of apple, walnuts, cinnamon, and red wine. It is supposed to represent the morter of the Jews. Afterwards, the kids went on their own way and the adults were able to enjoy a fabulous feast of salmon, brisket, spinach quiche, AMAZING mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and green beans. Tripp made sure to come back and eat the majority of my mashed potatoes :)

There is a large focus on children for Passover since the retelling of the Exodus to one's child is the object of the Seder experience, much effort is made to arouse the interest and curiosity of the children and keep them awake during the meal. At some point in the evening between putting Baxter to bed and feeding Tripp his eighth chicken nugget, Saba and Mom-Mom hid the afikoman, which is for the "dessert" after the meal, to encourage the kid's participation. After dinner, the kids were instructed to find the afikoman, and when they did, they all received a prize!!! What a special night. Thank you mom-mom & Saba!!

It's late and I'm tired and this may not make sense. I'll re-read later and edit where needed. But the pictures needed to be posted to show how cute the boys and Greg were in their yamikas.