Two seders down. Two and a half pounds up.

I always gain weight at Passover, so I was not surprised this morning to be 276.7 after two seders.  We had a lot of candy and matzo and high sodium foods for two huge seders as well as other meals.  I might do better today without a seder.  Also Mark is making a spaghetti squash with pasta sauce tonight for dinner with salad.  More like a normal meal than the seders!

Still, we had a BLAST at both seders despite the craziness with the cooking.  The stove repairman actually didn't get to the house on Friday until 6:30 p.m. and guests arrived within five minutes after he left.  He fixed the range burners but not the oven.  The part for the oven will be here the afternoon of May 2.  We can work around no oven as long as we can use the cooktop.  It was a blessing to be able to heat the matzo ball soup up on the stove top.  Everything else reheated both nights very easily in the microwave.  Susan Shapiro ended up making her fabulous charoset in our kitchen and then taking the three kugels and the shank bone to her house to cook.  I cooked the turkey in Susie Goldberg's oven and the asparagus, soup, and stuffing on her stove top.  Carrying the stuff back and forth in the car was the hardest part.

Eight people the first night and five the second!  Both groups had a blast.  Mark planned slightly different seders for each night so that he, Frank, and I had some variety.  Susan Shapiro brought a Plagues Kit, which was 10 types of candy, one to represent each plague.  We did them both nights, which is partly where all my candy eating came from, but everyone LOVED it.  There are more cakes, cookies, and macaroons in the house now than Frank and I should EVER eat, so I may actually have to throw some of it out just to keep from eating it.  Everyone had a wonderful time, and so did I.

My worries and panic on Friday are now a thing of the past.  Having the stove die wasn't what I would have wanted or planned, but the cooking and the seders went off very well in the end.

Today the three of us are heading to synagogue soon.  Mark is reading Haftarah today.  Then we will eat a picnic Passover lunch in the car before heading up to the Dr. Phillip's Center in downtown Orlando where we have tickets to the OPERA!  Yes, LIVE opera in Orlando is back.  We are seeing two short operas, a comedy by Mozart, Impressario, and a comedy by Poulenc, Les Mamelles de Tiresias.  After going to bed at 2 a.m (second seder didn't start until 8:38) and getting up at 6:30, I'm just hoping we can all stay awake through everything today!

Evey and Eric posted some marvelous pictures of their new home.  They have really bought a beautiful house in a fabulous neighborhood with great neighbors.  We know they will have many happy years in this "forever" home.  They sure seem excited getting some kitchen boxes taken over and put in place.  Her kitchen is huge with so much storage space that she finally has room to get even MORE kitchen-y gadgets!  LOL!

I hope everyone who might be reading this also had wonderful seders with family and friends.  I have seen some pictures on Facebook of other seders.  It certainly looks like people have been having fun this holiday season of freedom.  

Here's a picture from our first seder.

The beautiful table set for the first night.

Close up of Alice Pearlman's beautiful dishes, gold flatware, and wine glasses that  Frank gave to us to use.  

First seder group: Susie, Ed, Frank, Mark, Jonathan, Susan, and Don (Jonathan's dad)

Set for five for the second night, but I forgot to take a picture of the people.  It was me, Mark, Fran, and our neighbors Janet and Herb Koenig.