Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?

Passover began this week on Wednesday evening but on the night before Passover it is customary to make certain that the house is properly cleaned and all chametz (forbidden foods) have been cleaned out. This year we updated the tradition a little bit. Traditionally the kids will go around with a feather, a spoon and a candle in search of the last crumbs in the corner (read: things mommy has hidden for them to find). I wasn't so keen on letting Genevieve walk around with a candle so we let her use her flashlight. While I was putting the kids in their pajamas upstairs Carrie was secreting pieces of pita around the dining room. Genevieve was shocked and amazed to find so much pita on the floor. Even though Carrie blamed it on the cleaners Genevieve was unconvinced. She had her own explanation. The house was clearly magic. She proceeded to explain how magic houses just make pita appear.

The following day Carrie and G were busy making desserts for the seder. Passover desserts aren't known for being tasty but Carrie has been doing wonders in dessert research and found some truly passable desserts. It would be a lie to call them delicious. If it were served to you during the rest of the year, you would assume it was just a standard piece of cake not great but edible. On Passover, however, this is as good as it gets. They made brownies, which were more like fudgies, banana-nut cake, apple tea-cakes and chocolate nut-raisin clusters.

During the seder, a piece of matzah (afikomen) is set aside as the final dessert after which nothing shall be eaten - until the next day. When my father was explaining this, Genevieve was crestfallen. "What about all the other desserts Mommy and I made today?" she demanded. After a little explaining, she was right as rain and ready for some serious sederin'. She managed to steal the afikomen both nights but needed a little prompting and there was no subterfuge unless you count everyone else pretending to look the other way. Hey, she's young; she'll learn the fine art of afikomen-napping soon enough.

She had been practicing for the last two weeks on how to recite the four questions. Since she still can't read she has to do it by rote memorization. It isn't too much different than learning any song except that this one is in another language. She didn't really get past the first 2 1/2 questions. Perhaps she just isn't that inquisitive or maybe she is just a know-it-all. I know which my money is on.

If P.T. Barnum were to design a seder table it would probably look something like the one at our house. It is usually full of props and Passover themed tschotkes. Genevieve's addition was an Egyptian looking McDonald's Happy Meal toy. We have no clue what movie it came from but it has a copyright of 2006. Either way we told her it was Pharaoh and she was busy making him enslave the people around the table. If you think she's a harsh taskmaster when she's just Genevieve imagine her as an autocratic monarch.