We were slaves in Mizrayim...

For those of you who are unaware, Passover begins this Monday at sundown.

Passover, or Pesach, is the celebration of the Exodus from Egypt.  It is for Jews what Christmas is for Christians, the time of year when we get together as a family to celebrate.  We eat, the children get presents (actually bribes), and we relax as much as possible, because once we were slaves.  And now we are free.

I'm sure all of you are familiar with the culture that goes along with Christmas.  There are endless films that show dysfunctional families, coming together to try to have one nice night.  That's very much what Passover is like.  Only instead of going to church and having a nice dinner or party, all of those activities are combined into a Seder- a three plus hour long event including the reading of the Haggadah (the book of Exodus plus a ton of commentary from historic Rabbis), dinner, desert, and festivity.

It frequently goes horribly wrong.  This is the one Christmas-style film I've ever seen that deals with the chaos that is Passover.



We have our own family traditions.  Including the watching of my great-grandfather's copy of The Ten Commandments.  He taped it off of local television in 1986, and as a result it's about seven hours long.

Seriously.

And I love it.



This year is going to be CHAOS.  Between the fact that M and I are gearing up for finals, that we're driving into Michigan with my mother (who will have only been in the country for about twelve hours), bringing with us all of our dishes and chairs, and that sometime between now and when we leave (that's about 36 hours) we need to pack, clean, and buy an additional travel crib.

We're staying in a hotel while the girls stay with Grandmommy and Aunt Genocide.  That will make it almost like a 36 hour vacation.  Almost.  The seder is being hosted for the third time by Aunt Genocide and Aunt Something Funny.  They've never done this before, but I have.  Four times.  Once in a dorm, once in a tiny studio apartment, once at me and M's first place together, and then last year.  And it is a lot of effing work.  I worry that my sisters have no idea what they've gotten themselves in for.

This is going to be fun, right?  22 people in a tiny house, a five hour drive each way, unpaid leave for M (because you don't get Jewish holidays off but you do get Christmas off), and one big happy dysfunctional family seder.

Stay tuned for the results.

Because, as M keeps singing, "Everything's coming up Moses!"