Our first Passover

These are our dear friends Bridget and Scott. They are Annabel's parents and we live across the street from them now. They have a beautiful home and are both amazing cooks. Seriously amazing.

Scott's family is Jewish and so now he and Bridget cook a beautiful Seder dinner which they invited us to this year.

The table was gorgeous.

See?

We got to see a legitimate Seder plate and learn the meanings of all the different little parts from the shank bone to the bitter herbs. Claire decided she actually liked parsley dipped in salt water.

The glass of wine for Elijah. We also left the back door open to wait for Elijah to come. The kids thought that was fun.

 But the highlight was the Afikomen, which consists of three matza crackers. Part way through the meal the middle cracker is hidden and the kids are supposed to find it.

There were four kids total: Claire, Sam, Annabel, and Annabel's friend Grace.

Scott offered five golden coins to whoever found the hidden matza.

The race was on.

I kept picturing Sammy having a giant breakdown if his sister found the cracker and got all the coins.

But guess who found it?

He was thrilled of course.

You should have seen his face when Scott handed him all the gold coins. Claire gets gold dollars from her tooth fairy, so she has 6 or 7 of them at this point in her piggy bank, whereas Sammy had none until now.  But the real miracle came when he turned immediately around and handed each of the girls one of his coins. I almost cried! I think that's the first generous/non-selfish thing he has done in his life! I was very proud of him.

The dinner was awesome. It was super gourmet from start to finish. Matza ball soup, a homemade version of gefilte fish with shrimp and scallops in a taragon/butter sauce, briskett, haroset, mashed potatoes, green beans...it was incredible!

It was lovely. The whole thing. We read through a lot of the readings and prayers that go with the dinner and the kids sat through it pretty well! It was lots of fun and I ate like I hadn't eaten in a week. Thanks Scott and Bridget! I expect an invitation again next year now that we are neighbors. Sorry that the kids rigged a zipline out of rope and sticks from your front door knob to your gate at the end of the evening! You are very gracious hosts :)