Pesach Sameach!!!

Happy Passover! Some of you may know that we are in the middle of the Passover week right now. Although I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, my Jewish heritage means a lot to me and plays a strong role in our home. Since Joseph and I were married, we always said that we want to celebrate the Jewish holidays and teach our children about their unique heritage. During this Passover we celebrated the holiday for the first time together by having a small Seder (a ritual feast held on the first, sometimes second, night of Passover). I don't have a Haggadah (religious text that you follow during the Seder), so it wasn't really the most official Seder. I did remember a few things from when I celebrated Pesach when I was younger, though, and we used some references online that helped us with the order of things. One site even had sound clips of the prayers you recite during different parts of the Seder. Next year we will get a Haggadah!!

I LOVE Pesach and love all the symbolism that accompanies the Seder and the holiday. Here are some pictures of our Seder:

The Seder Plate is a special plate containing six symbolic foods used during the Passover Seder. Each of the six items arranged on the plate have special significance to the retelling of the story of the Exodus from Egypt.

Our Table. The extra cup is for Elijah. For the meal I made a really yummy candied walnut gorgonzola salad and a Moroccan dish called Chicken Tagine. Mmmm!! It turned out SOOO good!

Now for something pretty funny. As I was making the meal I had Joseph go to the store to get some matzah. Well, I don't think there are a lot of Jews in Tooele County, because the people who stocked the shelves at the grocery store didn't know to open the LARGE box containing the smaller boxes of matzah. Since Joseph has never purchased matzah before, he went ahead and got the BIG box. When he brought it home and we opened it, there were 5 smaller boxes inside. That is A LOT of matzah! We opened one, but I think I'm going to take the rest back to the store to see if they will take them back. Anybody need some matzah??

Next Year in Jerusalem!