Seder 2, Cooperatively

More bullets:

• I'm really enjoying all the comments on Passover posts here, at Phantom's, at Elswhere's and other blogs. I wish we could have a Pixie Seder--it would have great discussion, something which has been a bit lacking at our two seders so far, which have rushed through the haggadahs without much spontaneous discussion (although we did have a nice discussion about the origins of the orange on the seder plate and generational feminism on the first night. That was good.) Maybe we could write a Pixie Haggadah next year (in all our collective spare time!).
  
• Friend in Need of a Pseudonym created an awesome afikoman game for last night. We had 12 or 13 children, and she hid a piece of afikoman for each. Each afikoman bag had several post-it notes, and the three youngest children (which included Curious Girl) had the job of sorting the notes by color. Then they each got to be team captains, and each team had a task. CG's team had to sort words into a sentence: what are the meanings of Passover? The other two teams, with older teammates, had to sort letters into words that answered the question: compassion, freedom, food, and culture. Everyone got a great afikoman gift--CG is quite thrilled with a small bag of candy and her Hello Kitty coloring and activity book.
• I adapted our first night host's invitation to let everyone help tell the story. That was a great way to encourage people to pool what they remembered about Jacob, and Joseph, and the famine and dreams and Moses and whatnot. CG piped up with several details, and again had some big reactions to the stories. Before her baby Moses obsession, she was full of questions about Joseph (this after seeing about 10 minutes of the Donny Osmond version of J. and the Technicolor Dreamcoat at a neighbor's. She's no slouch in the memory and imagination department.). So when one of the big kids remembered that the other brothers put blood on Joseph's coat, she said "OH! that was sad."
  
• I added some cheesy Passover songs to the routine for last night, and "Take Me Out to the Seder" was a fun introduction to the evening (after I read a Passover picture book to set the mood). The older kids really got into the singing this year, and Falcon Claw had learned the blessing over wine and was very proud to read the blessings over the second and fourth cups. It was really hard to hear, and attentions were waning at different rates, but I think people at each of the three tables had a nice time, and it was nice to see more kids reading from the haggadah and more kids trying more foods.
  
• It was a very long evening, due to some logistical disasters with the chicken and late decisions about table placements and seating arrangements. We sat down to dinner at 8:30 and the afikoman hunt was at 10:30. CG was falling asleep on the way to the seder, and probably would have stayed asleep for the night. But she (and all the kids, really) were really great and stayed in good tempers all night. Tonight, I want to eat dinner really, really early.
• We've had a pretty soggy Passover experience so far, and unfortunately I'm not just talking about the spring thunderstorms, or the punch that spilled all over my seat just as we were sitting down to dinner that resulting in several 3 year olds scrambling to find me pillows to put on my seat so I wasn't sitting on wetness (and then made all of them want pillows, too). All that grape juice late at night is creating the need to change CG's sheets in the wee hours of the morning. Note to self: next time, leave clean sheets near the bed, and buy a second extra moisture-absorbing pad so that laundry isn't immediately necessary to get the bed set back up, and leave a clean set of PJs out, too, so that CG isn't outraged in the morning when she wakes all the way up without PJs on. Note to parents of two-ish-year olds: next year, organize potty runs before the afikoman hunt, since who really wants to stop to go potty in the midst of all that fun. Note to self: pack extra underwear, and bring it into our hosts' houses so I don't need to run outside to get it.
• CG has announced she wants to have a seder at our house tonight. Translation: I want to hunt for more afikoman. And since we are nothing if not accommodating at the Granola household, we're going to light candles, sing a few songs (since she is ever so adorable singing "Where is baby Moses, Moses, Moses, where is baby Moses, in the River Nile") and let her hunt for more afikoman.
  
• The toddler seder tomorrow starts at 3:00. That should be plenty of time for the grape juice to get absorbed before bed. Yay!
• This morning at breakfast, CG wanted me to the be Princess! who picks up Baby Moses! The baby grew in her tummy, she said. Then Moses became a girl and she wanted to name the baby Kiki, and we were both the mamas, and Mommy could be a mama with us when she woke up. A baby floating in the river can't have too many mamas. I'm still thinking about Yocheved, and CG is still thinking about the baby who needs someone to pick him up in the river.

Our fabulous former babysitter arrived here around 1 a.m. for a spontaneous visit home from far-away-city-with-first-job. She lived with us for the summer before she left for her senior year abroad, and she still stays here when she comes back to town (CG still calls the guest room "fabulous babysitter's room"). We love seeing her, and CG was so very excited when she woke up this morning to see that we had a beloved guest. So I'm going off to chat with her and Politica.