Wow...what a week! Somehow I managed to host or co-host two Passover seders without a single glitch! Both were incredibly fun and full of love and laughter!

Wednesday night R____, J____ T. and I hosted a seder for 24 people at J____ T's place. It was really fun. We wrote (or compiled anyway) our own Haggadah, which is always fun because then the whole thing feels distinctly ours. I knew and am good friends with many of the guests who came, but of the 24, I actually invited five of them. R____ invited four people, too, and the rest were J___ T.'s friends. Interestingly, I had gone on "dates" with three of the guests at the table (none of my invitees though one is a good friend). Two were jDate connections, one was a New Year's, um, connection.

The three of us, being the theatrical, spotlight loving hounds we are, we started the vening with a little ditty for our guestss...we sang a rendition of "There's No Seder Like Our Seder," sung to the tune of "There's No Business Like Show Business." The crowd looked nonplussed as we sang (probably off-key) our hearts out...Hey, we enjoyed it!

For some reason, J___ T. made me the seder leader. All that meant was that I would be the person pushing things along - kind of like the director or the stage manager. It went off without a hitch...other than some of the guests being kind of rude (talking while we were all taking turns reading the Haggadah), it went really well. J___ T.'s parents were in attendance and I, of course, loved them and loved that they were there. It was as if they represented all our parents who we couldn't share seder with this year for one reason or another.

I made matzoh ball soup and I must say, it was pretty good...I just followed the recipe on the box and they turned out pretty close to perfect. J____ T. and her mom made brisket and lemon chicken. R____ made two incredible delicious salads. Our guests brought amazing side dishes: Carribean kugel, sweet potato pie, spinach and cheese "pie." The dessert was out of this world - homemade macaroons, all sorts of cakesand cookies. It was delicious and everyone chipped in to make it so. I love that.

Clean up was a breeze with all of us helping. Of course, I got to go home and not deal with the nitty gritty of clean up, like vacuuming and whatnot. But J___ T. has that uber-vacuum so it probably wasn't too too bad! Click here to see pictures!


That was Seder #1 of 2003...On Thursday night I hosted Seder #2 of 2003.

Seder #2 could not have been more different. We did this one at Buzzie and R___'s place (aka Grandma's house). I knew pretty much everyone there, except for E____'s date and a teammate of Buzzie's. But by the end of the night I felt like I knew them both! This seder was decidely smaller than the one on first night. There were (only) 14 of us and it was much mor eintimate considering we pretyt much all knew each other. There were only six Jews there, but that made it even more special because I got to share this favorite holiday with some of my closest friends.

I was kind of in charge of this one but, as usual, eveyrone chipped in to help. I made brisket (Grandma's recipe - I overcooked it!) and matzoh ball soup and a spring salad...even better than the night before! Mama J made an amazing turkey breast- it smelled so good I actually ate some...mmmm mmmmm. M____ brought a delicious side dish of carrots and honey and oranges, and JLy made an awesome noodle kugel...pretty good for a small town Catholic girl! For dessert we had E____'s homemade macaroons, D_____'s chocolate,caramel matzoh crunch (AMAZING...THE BEST PART OF THE WHOLE MEAL!), and a delicious fruit and sortbet selection from L____ and M_____.

It was a really great evening, full of love and light and friendship and sharing. When I share Passover with my close friends, I feel even closer to them because I feel like they are participating in a bit of my own familiy history. I love that!

Next year in (San Francisco? Portland? New York?)!