Passover and Spring Break

Tonight as the sun goes down and the sky grows dark, I will be sitting around a table filled with family and friends, reading the story of the exodus from Egypt, drinking four cups of wine, and eating foods reserved specifically for one week a year.

For the next eight days, we will not eat any leavened food products. We will eat off of different dishes than we use the rest of the year, we will use different utensils, and we will try our best to make dessert that tastes good - a truly overwhelming feat when you consider that ingredients like flour are completely off-limits.

Because tonight begins the Jewish holiday of Passover.

In my mind, Passover means warm(er) weather, blue skies, and my first pedicure of the year. Passover means peep toe heels, new dresses, and long sunny walks outside.

Except this year it doesn't mean any of those things, because I am sitting at my desk right now watching the snow swirl outside in this endless winter. This year the skies are grey, I am still wearing winter clothes, and my toes are sadly completely encased in rubber rain boots.

But Passover is here, nonetheless.

The next eight days will be a bit of a whirlwind. We are spending the first half of the holiday with David's family, and then on Sunday we are flying to Cleveland to spend the second half with my family at my sister's house. She is pregnant and minutes away from her due date, so we are all hoping that by the time we get there, we have another tiny baby to love.

The first two days (tomorrow and Wednesday) and the last two days (next Monday and Tuesday) are the most important days of this holiday. They are days where we don't do any work or turn on lights and computers. We don't watch TV and we don't talk on the phone. For two days this week and two days next week we all unplug and enjoy being together as a family.

So the next two weeks will be a bit of a spring break for me on this blog of mine. Because of the way the holiday falls this year I won't be able to make the Yeah Write grid for the next two weeks, or write as much as I usually do. My mind will no doubt be swirling with ideas, and I already can't wait to get back here once the holiday is over.

If you celebrate Passover, I wish you a happy holiday filled with food, family and fun. And if you don't, I wish you a swift end to this interminable winter, and blue skies and warm days ahead.