Ok, so it's not really a seder if the only cup involved is one of bedtime water (and that being left downstairs, to boot). But it was sort of a seder, involving matzah.
These days, a part of our bedtime ritual is making challah. I get hungry after all that toothbrushing, potty-going and/or bath-making, pj-donning activities. So I think, maybe some challah. I mix up the ingredients, with a Pretend Curious Girl to help me, and Curious Girl transforms into the dough. Which needs kneading (which sometimes tickles, but the dough tries really hard not to laugh), and which needs to be covered up with the warm blankets to rise, and which needs to be rolled into dough snakes and then braided, left to rise again and then painted with egg wash and maybe sprinkled with sesame or poppy seeds. The dough sometimes talks to me to help me figure out what it needs, and Pretend Curious Girl helps with all that, since real CG is too busy being dough to help me. And then I pop the dough into the oven (under the blankets), Pretend CG sets the timer and bing! fresh challah! It's so yummy! and then, CG is back and we go to bed.
During Passover, we've been making matzah. CG's class when to a matzah factory (I think it was some kind of Chabad outreach at an orthodox synagogue in town--I was not clear on that) and they made matzah together, so she--as talking matzah dough-- told me how we need to roll the dough, pat it down, use a fork to make the little holes, and then use a shovel to put it in the oven. We've had some fun making matzah at bedtime, but tonight, she said, "You be the Jewish people, and you have to go away." "And take my matzah," I said. "Of course!" she agreed. So i mixed up my matzah, and started to bake my bread, and Moses and Miriam announced it was time to go. So I grabbed my matzah and left the bed and wandered all around the room with it, until we came to the Red Sea, which looked a lot like my pair of black slippers in the evening light. we decided to cross it fast fast, the better to get into the bed and away from Pharaoh.
And I know, in other people's seders, there's some singing and dancing on the other side of the Red Sea. But tonight, in the bedtime seder, we decided we were hungry, and I made another piece of matzah. The first one was just so good. CG asked me to be the Jewish people again, but I said no, one wandering in the desert in an evening was enough for me, even with the World's Most Adorable Matzah with me.
And then we read The Snowy Day, Ezra Jack Keat's beautiful book, which CG still likes to act out. So she walked around the room with her toes pointed in, and out; she dragged her feet and smacked a snow-covered tree; she made two snow angels, and slid down a hill, and put a pretend snowball in her pretend pocket.
And then, in the Promised Land of her Bed with Clean Sheets and a Pretend Snowfall on the Floor, she fell asleep.
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4 comments:
Oh! Such a lovely bedtime ritual.
We sometimes have a morning ritual of Doing The Laundry, wherein I announce loudly that it's time to do the laundry and start scooping up J's blankets and sheets -- but wait! Why is it So Heavy! There's Something In Here! Oh my goodness, It's Moving! Aaaah, there's something alive in there! . . . Oh! It's a Boy! Where did you come from, little boy? . . . you're MY boy? are you sure? Oh, you ARE!!!!
What a lovely game! Acting out the stories together is a joyful part of being alive isn't it?
I love that game!
We play "Where's Muffin Man?" (Generally, completely covered by blankets, but he and Mr. Spock conspired once to make it LOOK like MM was under the blankets, but really he was in the guest room.)
Oh, what fun all these games are. We play "where's CG" (she calls it, "Can you see me anywhere?) all the time--in the car, at dinner. She's esp fond of hiding under her New Big Bed, too.
Muffin Man and Mr. Spock sure are tricky!
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