Passover Seder

Last night Neil and I went to our friend Rachel's Passover for non-Jews.  It was great fun.  At Passover it is important to always do the same ritually in exactly the same order.  Some of the things that we do is to bless the Manishevitz wine (or Marrionberry Sparkling Cider in Emily's case) before you drink it.  

Then you say other prayers before you eat other items off the Seder plate.  We ate parsley dipped in salt water to remember the tears that were shed during 40 years of slavery.  All of the foods are steeped in symbolism.  We also had horseradish sauce as a bitter herd that we had on Matza bread, but I forgot what that symbolized.  We then made a sandwich with the horseradish and this super-sweet dish that had apples, walnuts, honey, and sugar.

After we said our prayers and ate from the Seder plate, we then had our dinner.  We had Matza kugel, Matza rolls, hard boiled eggs, gefelta fish (fish balls - kind of nasty) and some other things.  There is piece of matza cracker that is hidden in the house, and before we can have dessert someone has to find it, and they get a prize.  Dessert was Matza crackers covered in chocolate and other goodies.  It was real tasty too.

Dinner was a lot of fun.  At one point we all started talking about how we all dislike Alaska, and that the key to enjoying Alaska is getting out of the state every now and then.  It was funny because besides one guy who had grown up in Alaska, Emily and I had lived in Alaska longer than the other 5 people.  Who knew we'd be such experienced Alaskans at some point?