PassOver, Easter, that melts into Spring, These are a few of our Favorite Things!

Last Saturday we filled our arms with fresh vegetables from our local farmer's market and cooked up a storm all afternoon for Easter feasting on Sunday. We headed down to Ted's brother, J.D.'s house carrying roasted, curried cauliflower, braised artichoke hearts with mint, pale green flageolet beans, sautéed garlicky kale, rosemary shortbread cookies and homemade lemon curd. Oh yes, and we carried Ted's mom too with her killer macaroni, an angel food cake and a chocolate cake. J.D. made tender lamb and ham, and on our way down I was already feeling the groan-worthy overindulgence that was about to put us into a soporific dream.

We enjoyed each other. I've mentioned our nieces, J.D.'s daughters, in previous blogs and you know how utterly we adore them. Everyone seemed in good spirits and we were all engulfed in a lovely Easter bubble of time...

J.D.'s ovah-da-top baby potatoes in gravy.

And like the Walrus and the Carpenter

from Alice in Wonderland, we've "eaten every one!"

Vanessa (Mark's sister), Mark (Amanda's husband)

and Amanda (our niece). Serious food prep in da kitchen.

November newlyweds, Amanda & Mark

Brother Jeff played Easter Bunny and brought

silly putty eggs and chocolate bunnies.

The girls' mom Debbi, and Ted's mom, Laurie Jeanne in the back yard.

J.D, Shanna (our niece) and Todd (Shanna's boyfriend)

Better shot of Todd (and Shanna's tattoos) ... flowers in every form.

Peggy & Amanda ... and yes that's my beer "The Prankster".

Jeff, Ted and J.D. - the Raess Brothers.

I think there's a movie script to be made here somewhere, don't you?

It's a poignant time of year, Spring. I remember the thrill of finding eggs at Easter, and Passover dinners as a kid, where the sedars went on way too long for the grumbling tummys of children, but the comfort of being surrounded by family, extended family and friends was so affirming. Belonging. Community. Groundedness. Words that so many people yearn for these days while living in "interesting" times.

This year for Passover we went to our brother-in-law Raymond's brother Pete's house. (Don't get me started ... we've had many convoluted discussions about whether or not Pete's also a brother-in-law, maybe once removed or other such nonsense, and so we've all agreed that we're just "mishpucka" (pronounced mish-pook-a) on some level, and leave it at that. ("Mishpucka" means "family" in Yiddish, and that's all we need to know.)

Pete's Sedar was a delight. We sang songs (versions of "My Favorite Things", "It's A Small World", etc. adapted for Passover), enjoyed a feast prepared by Pete's son Josh with his sister Dani as sous chef, and laughed and ate and laughed and ate, ad infinitum ... (so vat else is nu?)

Top left to right: Nayla with coloring book haggadah,

Rudy reading his part, Ted, Peg and Nayla,

Bottom left to right: "Boppy" and Nayla, Pete leading the festivities,

and a picture of Sam, Nayla and Kaliyah that wasn't from Passover,

but we didn't have a pic of Sam from that night,

so we included this one.

Happy Springtime Everyone!