Passover 2013

With our car situation still in flux when it came time to make our holiday travel plans, we decided to fly to Maryland for Passover this year. Alden's new ear tubes seemed to help with his airsickness. We had a handful of barf bags at the ready, but didn't use a one of them on either flight. We were very proud of Alden but I think he was the most excited of all. The only drama on the way down was a freak snowstorm that blanketed much of the mid Atlantic region. Our flight was delayed by an hour, but we were able to make it down just fine when the weather warmed slightly by midday. There was about 2 inches of snow on the ground in Baltimore when we arrived in mid afternoon and by the next day, it had rained and all the snow was gone. Still, this is the first time in my memory that the seder was marked with a snow storm. Usually the holiday falls when spring is well underway down there.

Alden received some wonderful gifts from Auntie Kay, several of which were wrapped in pokkadot ribbon. Kerstin, quick on his toes, fashioned a tie out of this ribbon for Alden for the seder, since we were unable to find him a proper tie in the kids clothing stores. Alden was really excited about it.

Geoff joined us for the first night of Pesach.

Alden still hasn't learned how to sit still or listen quietly during the seder itself, but he loves to entertain us with funny faces and still can't help banging the silverware together or reducing the tablecloth to moist shreds.

Elliott slept through most of the first seder, but he was awake for the second and sat in his car seat for a good portion of it. He got to meet my grandfather on Monday night and the two of them really hit it off.

The dinner always runs late and by the time we finish all the courses and find the afikomen, it's usually way past bedtime for the kids. Despite being cranky and tired, Alden got to stay up to open the door for Elijah this year.

It was Elliott's first time meeting Rob and Kay and he really took a liking to them. He especially liked the Mayan calendar on the wall of Kay's kitchen. It quickly became our go-to object to avert meltdowns.

Kay made amazing meals, as she always does, with several courses, and decadent desserts. We ate our fill and then some because there were so many tempting options.

Alden wanted to take his own pictures of the seder as well. We forgot to pack his camera so he borrowed ours. He took this picture above, which is a surprisingly well-composed and focused image of his gefilte fish plate. He loves gefilte fish. But most of the pictures he took were nasal numbers like this one of my mom.