Nesting

I have been trying to compose a post about pesach for a good half hour, and I just can't find the words. This is my favorite holiday (and we Jews have a lot of holidays) and I really crave being home during pesach. And I miss the cleaning and the cooking and having all of our friends over.

For the past 2 years I cooked at JD's apartment. 2 years ago I flew back from Ireland about 48 hours before pesach, and last year I had a conference until 2 days before. Which means that I had to clean (JD did help quite a bit as did his roomates) and cook for 25-30 people in about 24 hours (No, the apartment was not that big, we had to string tables together between different rooms and the invitations always said 'Bring your own chairs'). I love planning the menu weeks in advance (this is the only, only holiday I do this for) and making detailed shopping lists for JD. And I love staying up all night with a list of 10, maybe 20 recipes if I'm feeling ambitious, to cook. And knowing that at 5 am I will be throwing something together with the leftover pareve chocolate chips and jam and oil ... or calling my mom continuously to ask about substitutes for um, tofu?, and rape seed oil and which types of nuts really are ok.

My grandfather was the baker at a very famous kosher bakery and we always did passover in style as a child. Although it was a contentious time. My two grandmothers would set up warring stations in the kitchen and use the kids to 'pass messages' between them, even though they were probably back to back in the kitchen. And my two grandfathers would lead competing seders at opposite ends of a huge table, and the battle would intensify when my maternal grandfather would finish a good hour before my paternal grandfather.

And another thing that I love about pesach is that it really is an easy holiday to explain, and it is quite accessible to JD, who was not raised in a Jewish family. And I love that the main part of the celebration happens at home. And that after you've thrown this enormous party and everyone's sitting around tipsy with a stomach ache, you realize that you are going to do it all over again the next night.

Which is why, when JD suggested that I not obsess so much about planning this month while I am abroad, I just couldn't. I have to find 2 good places for pesach, and right now I'm batting nul. I have already sent about 5 e-mails asking if friends of friends are around, and I will be a social butterfly on shabbos. Wish me luck.