Matzoh overload

There were many tidbits that I have been waiting to post, and so, despite the late hour, here goes:

First: Why is this Pesach different from all other Pesachs?

1) Instead of my parents selling my chametz for me, I sold theirs.
My father's comment: Well, that's a role reversal! (This is much paraphrased)

2) My great-aunt was not able to make her two signature dishes: a) tsimmes (carrot and sweet potato stew, pretty much) and b) floemen (prunes) and potatoes. For the first sedder, my dad had time to make the tsimmes, but not the floemen and potatoes. Over the phone erev Pesach, he told me that he and my mother made Matzoh Kugel instead (same recipe we use all year, only replace egg noodles with matzoh farfel).
My response: Isn't matzoh kugel the exact opposite of floemen and potatoes?
(If you didn't get that, think for a minute about the main ingredients in these dishes.)

3) We had so many people at our sedder that we had to have an auxiliary table. I'd call it a kids table, but it wasn't - the real kids were at the main table - as were some people the same age as those at the extra table. I guess you could call it the kids-of-the-immediate-family-and-their-guests table. Or the "ha,ha, we actually have some air circulation" table. At first, I was bothered that we were not seated with the other 24 people at our sedder, but in the end, it worked out just fine. We could still see the main table, and participate fully. And then, on the second night, we were honored to be able to sit at the main table by the end - because half of the guests went home early!

Second: A few impressive numbers:

When I called home before Pesach, my mother said to me, "Listen, I want to let you in on the reality [in terms of sedder numbers]" And I was expecting her to say that, after all these years, the relatives in South Jersey were too old to travel and that we'd have about ten of us at the sedder. Nope. Quite the opposite. The number she gave me: 34. I was floored. Granted, that was over two nights - we had 30 each night, but there were four who only came the first night, and four who only came the second.

And another impressive number: Of those 30 people who came each night, 8 were sleeping in our house, 1 around the corner, and 10 were at my cousin's house up the block - which means that 19 people walked to our seder (for some of us, that meant walking downstairs, but there are benefits to being the hosts). That means that less than half of our seder guests drove - which is pretty good for my family. And to have 19 people attend a sedder without driving sounds pretty impressive to me.

Third: An interesting thing I learned

Sometimes, it is actually possible to say that a little girl's mouth ran into a grown man's fist and mean that this is actually what happened. For those of you who know who my sedder guest was, you will understand how it is impossible for it to have been the other way around. This was actually a perfectly innocent accident. And after the crying, there was ice cream, and that made everything better. Even post-injury, my friend was a rather popular guest among the little kids.

I am sure there is more that I am forgetting, but even after all the sleeping I got to do, I think it is time to go do some more.

Bissli

So I walked into the local kosher food store on a quest for salad dressing and snack food this morning, and what should I find? Bissli!

You'd think, the ultimate of chametz. After all, the package itself advertises its contents as "wheat snacks." (or something like that.)

But then I look closer, somewhat confused, and I find that the package says O-U P. I check the ingredients. The very first one? Matzoh meal! Who knew?

At any rate, it was a pleasant - if fattening - surprise.

On a more frustrating note, did you know it costs less to do one-hour developing in the store at CVS than it does to send the film out? The only problem: they can't do the photo CD in the store. So here I am, stuck paying the extra $$.