Holy Days

I've been fretting, whenever I have a free second, about Passover. We're having a very, very low-key Passover this year, so low-key it might not even be recognizable. No one's coming over either night for seder, and we're not going anywhere. I'm not happy about this because Em is really, really starting to understand what all of this is about, and she gets so excited whenever there's a holiday. Add to that the fact that when I came home from the office yesterday (yes, Sunday; I was working on the book, and then worked more in the evening after they went to bed, only getting to sleep myself at 4:30 am) N and Em had made cards for me with little presents inside "to let you know we're thinking about you even though we don't see you hardly ever," Em said. Just kill me.

So, Passover. Feeling guilty. All that jazz. So this morning I decide that even if it's going to be the four of us, we're still going to do a seder, and we're going to have the kids' favorite all-time meal, chicken soup with matzo balls. (If you haven't had my chicken soup with matzo balls, you haven't lives. You may think you've lived, but you haven't.) So Em and I head out, and we decide to go to the library first (she's on spring break) and she takes out 12 chapter books, which is impossible for her to read in three weeks, but she's all excited, so I let her. Then we do the grocery shopping for the soup, and Em helps me find stuff. Then we come home, and Em asks if she can make the chicken soup. So I teach her how to clean out a chicken, and let her use a very sharp knife to cut up vegetables, and I even let her crack all the eggs and pour out the oil and mix up the matzo balls. She was so excited about doing all that stuff herself that she called her grandmother to tell her all about it, in excruciating detail.

Anyway, a little while ago, after we'd cleaned up the kitchen, she turned to me and said, "I think this is the best Passover ever, because we were a team."

Lesson learned. So what if it's just us? It's us, our family. And so what if it's only a small feast? It's a feast we made together. My daughter is a very wise young woman.