What the...?

So wasn't it just New Year's Eve?

I realized today that Passover is just around the corner, a mere two weeks or so from now. While this isn't huge HUGE news since I don't go through my house with the traditional feather and candle looking to sweep crumbs of bread products out of the house, I DO prepare a seder and I need to get a-cracking.

I fell asleep looking through recipes today. Will I survive the cooking and preparations?

Passover is one of my all-time favorite holidays. Mostly, I think, because I always had so much fun with my cousins at Seder time. I want my kids to feel the same way with their family and friends. Passover is something to look forward to that's special and unusual and filled with ritual.

I used to call my cousin Julie each Passover to see what she was wearing to Seder. This was WAY before we were teenagers. It's just that if SHE was in a dress, I wanted to wear a dress. If she was in a skirt, I wanted to wear a skirt. And later, as we got a little older, if she was wearing knickers (or gauchos or whatever), then I wanted to do the same. Every year we'd dance the Dayenu dance in the hallway at my cousin's apartment and sneak into the next room and pet their Dalmatian, Trilby, who spent time locked away because my uncle was allergic. We looked for the afikoman and received cool looking coins as a prize and later we made fun of my stepfather who called it the "Africoman" or at least that's what it sounded like. Shmueli sang "BIM Hay Rah" and pointed is finger and we all sang "Hail Renee" and "One Little Goat" around the table.

While I can't repeat these memories with my own kids, we can come up with our own traditions over time and I want them to feel that special feeling about Passover that I do.

The Peanut is getting old enough to sing at least one of the four questions. I can't wait. :-)

I hope your plans are coming along. And if Passover isn't your thing and maybe Easter is, then I hope your peeps are fresh and the grass doesn't make it into sneaky places in your homes where you find strands of it months later.

Spring is upon us and there's much to do! Time to get cracking!