We had the first Passover seder here (this is two and almost a half weeks ago I’m talking about) but didn’t take any pictures. For the second seder we went to David and Rachel’s out in Southboro and did take pictures. All of Millie and Joel’s grandkids were there. We had expected 18 people for the seder, but Charley, Nicole, and Emma had some kind of medical hang-up and didn’t get there, and Rachel’s sister changed her plans at the last minute, so there were only 14. See if this adds up: Gena and her three boys, David and Rachel and their two boys, Millie and Joel, Anne, Arlene’s college roommate Judy, and Arlene and me.
Rachel was very organized about the whole thing. She had decided what serving dishes she needed in advance:
Darn, I can’t quite read the label there, but it says “gefilte fish”. I wanted it visible in case there are any readers who think gefilte fish is a semi-mythical entity that people just joke about. No, a Passover seder without gefilte fish would be a lot like Thanksgiving dinner without squash. Not like Thanksgiving dinner without turkey, but very conspicuous by its absence.
Dinner set for this many people takes up more than a dining room.
Here’s a closer look at the seder plate. I dug the horseradish out of our garden and we had already used it on our seder plate. There wasn’t enough to cut up for people to eat, but enough to look at anyway. The orange is a recent but widespread tradition. Apparently several years ago a prominent rabbi said “A woman belongs on the bima [leading a synagogue service as rabbi or cantor] as much as an orange belongs on a seder plate.” Of course he meant he didn’t approve of ordination of women, but many people chose to interpret it as, “since everyone knows it makes sense to have women rabbis and cantors, an orange must belong on the seder plate.” So having an orange on your seder plate is definitely a political statement.
Of course, the main point of pictures is to have pictures of kids. The four older kids were playing with a very complex Brio train layout a lot of the time.
Here are the two youngest, Jacob and Baylor.
Trey, Gena’s middle kid, is the most active of the bunch but surprisingly sensitive and considerate for all that. We had been hoping that this would be an opportunity for Emma to meet all these kids, and especially Trey and his older brother Mason, but it didn’t happen.
Jared, David and Rachel’s older kid, is big on costumes. He put on his pirate outfit for this picture. He had made the placecards that show up on the picture with the seder plate.