Passovers Past and Present

Passover is one of my favorite holidays. Not that I’m a big fan of matzoh. And admittedly, it’s a lot if work to prepare for Passover. But I love having the family gather together for the Seder. I love the story telling and singing the songs together,

When I was growing up on the East Coast, the Seder was always held at our house. We didn’t have the biggest house. In fact, we lived in a rented apartment, whereas my cousins lived in large suburban homes with multiple bathrooms and guestrooms that could have more easily accommodated both the Seder and overnight guests. But we had the honor of hosting, because we lived in the same town as Papa, the patriarch of my mother’s family. Papa sat at the head of the table and led the Seders until he passed away when I was a teenager.

After I got married, I never lived in the same area as my parents or my brother. My husband and I lived either in Israel or in California. They moved to Florida. Once or twice, when my parents were still alive, we managed to fly across the country to spend Passover with them and my brother's family. But for most of my married life, we have hosted the Seder at our house.

Often we have twenty-five people or more at the Seder, a combination of family and friends. This year, I had a special challenge, since I’m still recovering from my broken right hand.

It’s hard to cook or serve without a fully functioning right hand. So I pared down the guest list and made it clear that I would need a lot of help. Our three daughters are all grown. Shelli was going to be away traveling on vacation. Orli is married with a 1 ½ year old son and I knew she wouldn’t be able to help much, because my adorable grandson would be needing attention. So I was counting primarily on my husband and my daughter, Keren, to set up the table and serve our somewhat smaller, but still not tiny group of thirteen adults and three small children.

It turned out that we got a nice surprise. Shelli cut her travel short and returned home the day before the Seder. Thus, I had two daughters pitching with the final cooking and setting up. Guests also brought food to share. As usual, we had more than enough to eat and plenty of left-overs.

We didn’t get to go through as much of the Haggadah as we usually do—that’s really a challenge with a toddler at the table!—but we did get through almost all the songs and everybody had a good time.

UPDATE ON MY HAND

I’m also feeling optimistic that my hand will return to normal sometime soon. It's getting more functional in multiple areas. In the kitchen, I can now cut an onion and use scissors. In the car, I can turn the key in the ignition and shift gears with my right hand. And finally, I am beginning to type with all my fingers! Just need to work some more on the strength, so that I can type for longer periods of time. I have started supplementing the once a week physical therapy from Kaiser with private visits to a sports medicine doctor who does acupuncture and therapeutic massage. It's expensive, but I could feel a difference after my first session yesterday. Still have pins in my right arm and have three more follow up sessions to go. Planning to return to work in the middle of the month.

P.S. I am hoping to get a couple of photos of the Seder from the family. Will update the posting when I get them.