Passover 2011

This year we were planning on attending a messianic Passover seder at a local messianic synagogue. I wasn't sure I was up for the task of hosting Passover here at our house if we were going to have more people than just our little family of 4. So, we were going to attend the one at the synagogue until we got to talkin' and wondered what would occupy our children during the seder until food was served. We realized that there was really nothing we could bring to occupy them that whole time.
Then we decided to go ahead and host it here on April 23rd and invited E's family. We used the same Haggadah we used last year from a book called Family Celebrations at Easter.

We also called Wegman's and had them cater the meal and prepare the seder plate.

The day arrived and E's dad, Cliff, his girlfriend, Torri, E's grandpa and E's sister, Kate, joined us.
The seder went so well! Our kids did phenomenally well considering Miss A had refused her nap that day (which is her usual M.O. for weekends). She sat during the seder and listened and ate when she was supposed to eat and drank from her sippy cup when the others took their appropriate sips from their wine glasses. FJ walked around and mostly amused himself. I had to check in on him from time to time or hold him or try to feed him during it but I was mostly able to participate too!
Miss A sitting at the prepared table (Elijah's place was set up on our kitchen counter)-

The Beginning of the seder-

 Miss A searching for the afikomen....she's getting very warm-

 She's cold now-

 Found it! Look at that big grin on her face!

 I had to ransom it back from her with a brand new package of sidewalk chalk.
After the meal and finishing up the seder-

 Hosting and attending a seder puts me in such an anticipatory spirit for Easter. Knowing that Jesus ate unleavened bread and drank wine and said some of the same words during his last meal make it so meaningful and so many parts of the seder point to the Messiah.  If you have never attended a seder, I highly recommend it whether it is Messianic or not.

Two Passover children's books we own and our children enjoy reading are:

 My First Passover Book by Tomie dePaola-we just got this book this year and it was cute and gave a brief overview of a seder.
 Hooray! It's Passover! by Leslie Kimmelman. I bought this during my teaching days and it's more informational than the book above and Miss A really enjoyed it.


And to sum it all up, as our messianic haggadah says-"Next Year in the New Jerusalem!"