Sensational Seder..............

Been plowed under for the past few days, more like burried under matzah - oy vey, Pesach/Passover descended with an unusual ferocity. Most years I have the celebration in my home where we collect numerous strays who do not have their families around, the only relatives being Josh's dad and step-mom. This year our group dwindled down to just 5 adults, hardly worth doing a whole hoo ha for. My cousins were kind enough to extend an invitation to all of us so we went to their house for the abridged seder, a 30 second countdown to dinner time with a few sips of wine thrown in, I walked into the kitchen for something and it was over. The food more then made up for the meager seder :), my cousin Darren is a superb cook, we have alwways told him to open a restaurant, he does the best braai/BBQ you have ever had and I must say I have yet to have tried one thing that he has made that I don't like. His mother-in-law made the best kneidlach/matza balls I have ever had (who even knew Matza had balls??). Pesach came on the heels of an unbelievably busy week, I had quite a few closings, two of which lasted for 2 days - it was great being busy but so hard having to coordinate all the other million things I had to do. I did not get home before 9pm and was out the door by 7am at the supermarket/drycleaner/school, etc. doing what has to be done before the work day got underway. By the Seder on Wednesday I was exhausted. The kids were so conked, Nikki crawled onto my lap at around 9pm and begged me to go home, she is a kid who is happily asleep by 7pm. We did not get home until 11pm, where we unpacked kids, peeled off clothes and collapsed into bed. One of the endless joys of my kids is that the later they go to bed the earlier they wake up - what the hell is with that? Normally Nikk is the culprit today it was all Ryan, oy friggin' vey. 5:30am. Way before Barney or any cartoons, we watched the waether together - not that she would have watched Barney but hey it was bloody early!!

I scrambled off to work, arrived bleary eyed, did my thing, hit COSTCO, shopped for the weekend - COSTCO for those in SA is like Makro only way, way better. The best butchery, best fruits and veg but you buy them in bulk, my kids eat fruit in bulk so it is never wasted in my home.

Cooked, refereed a playdate (4 screaming girls) threw kids in the bath, dressed them and headed out to Josh's step brother who without traffic lives 45 minutes away. It took us 2 hours!!!!! Pure hell. Luckily we put videos on for the kids, Josh had his satelite radio, the voice on the magellan directed us and I could just chill out and relax. Rob and Pam did an incredible seder, have to say the food was no where near the night before's spread but the seder was incredible, they made their own book with unsual stories and funny songs which the kids acted out. It was great, very lebedick (lively) as they say in yiddish. The girls had a blast as there were a cackle of little screaming girls for them to hang out with.

Today was work once again and I am just dragging, ready to pass out but have chicken soup a' cooking, matzo balls a boiling and we start eating all over again.