Last Wednesday and Thursday were the first two nights of Passover. I hosted and cooked Seders for both nights. Seder mean “Order” but I can tell you, in our case it was a total misnomer.
To start with, several of my guests cancelled, not merely at the last minute, but after we had actually started. So there were several empty settings at the table. Two of my guests got lost (they bought a map, but I don’t know why they didn’t call) and showed up a solid hour and a half late. And worst of all, our son came home with a horrible cough and fever, which the doc told us next morning was croup. Fine; that night he wanted the one and only original and authentic Mommy. So having cooked and served a 6 course meal (Marinated mushrooms, Cold cherry soup, strawberry-romaine salad, a sort of spinach almost-lasagna with tzimmis and kugel, cheesecake, and tea with candied nuts and citrus peels) and cleaned up thereafter, I ended up holding a little boy in the recliner to help him breathe until 6:00 a.m. His Daddy tried to take over, but that created hysterics, which made the breathing even worse. Mommy stayed.
After that I slept til noon. I must heap blessings on my house guest, Sarah, who got up with Joseph. Once I woke up, she took care of him while I did the darn thing all over again. The wonderful thing about that was that my dad, who is disabled and all to often can’t make it out, managed to get there for the second Seder. (Different menu: chicken soup, salad, brisket with tzimmis and potato kugel, walnut sponge cake and strawberries.) For all the surrounding chaos, it was pretty good, with lots of laughter and joking. Of course, the brocolli was chopped and ready and didn’t get cooked either night. First night I forgot it, and second night, as my husband put it, Joseph was stapled to my lap. So it got stir-fried with onions and almonds for dinner Friday night.
I’m glad I only have to do this once a year. I’m really glad Dad got to come. Most of all, I’m glad Joseph is much better now, so I don’t have to sleep in his room with one ear open to make sure he keeps breathing. Yes, it was that bad. Steamy bathroom helped; next stop would have been the E.R. Gah; not something I ever, ever want to repeat.
I took time off work for the adventure, so I had a very long weekend. (State of Indiana closes for Good Friday.) I need another of similar length to recover from it. Anyone got a tropical island they can lend for a few days?
No, but you’re welcome to the easy chair in the book nook, antimacatsar and all.
Rufus the rabbit has taken up residence in the back yard. He’s kinda fun to watch.