Passover 2025
Purim is over. By now you should have either donated your unopened shaloch manot goodies or eaten them. Or given them to work colleagues. And there is nothing wrong with that. Last week I had mentioned that I didn’t receive any Snickers bars. Fortunately, my surrogate granddaughter let me have the one that she received (because she doesn’t like them. I didn’t bully her into giving it to me, just in case you were wondering). In any event, what does the end of Purim mean? You guessed it — time to start fretting over the upcoming Passover holiday season.
The eight days that you spend months thinking about and hours cooking for and even longer cleaning for. And then, just as you are settling into the new layout of where all of your cooking gear is, you turn around and it is all over. Everything is getting put away (usually by me, but that is okay). Amazing, right?
My friend has been in Atlanta caring for her mother, and she likes to post pictures of kosher-for-Passover products she’s taken there. Nine dollars for jelly. Even more for eggs and margarine. Very discouraging. Though the most discouraging thing was that she located only two bottles of orange soda. Guess it is a good thing that Husband #1 isn’t going to be in Atlanta for the holiday. (But we will miss everyone we know and love who will be in Atlanta.)
I would like to take a trip down memory lane to Passover 2020, or as I like to call it, the great equalizer. Every single person had to make Passover, or at least I think they did. All the people who have gone away every year, who don’t know the joy of shlepping up dishes and buying kosher-for-Passover fare — they all got a crash course.
And when Amazing Savings closed its doors two weeks before Passover, that just put everyone over the edge. And that is where online ordering came in very handy. Though I become hyper-organized for the holiday because I have no one to help me (my fault, I spoiled my boys and I did apologize to their wives when I met them) and I had bought all my dishes, tins, and etc. even before the pandemic became “official.”
I am always so curious to know if any of those people who had never been home for Passover before decided, “You know what, that was really nice. Let’s never go away again.” Did that happen? Feel free to let me know if that was your experience.
As for me, I have been both spoiled and not spoiled when it comes to the holiday. I have been taken away, I have stayed home, and I can honestly say that one of the nicest Passovers was the 2020 one. I had all of my Oreos home and there was only Dil #1 at the time. (I’m not sure how she felt about being stuck at her in-laws’ house for so long, but that is for another discussion.)
Our seders went until almost 4 in the morning, and the boys got to share every dvar Torah they had ever learned, probably starting from kindergarten. The hired help (me) didn’t ask anyone to hurry up, the manager of the program (Husband #1) actually left the lights on so it was never dark (unlike our first Passover at home, when I had to clean the dishes by the light of the yom tov candles), and it was really, really special.
What I do find amazing is that the cost of cake mixes at ShopRite has not gone up in years. Not that I am complaining.
Husband #1 would be totally fine with coffee cake for every meal. And as I have shared in years past, two cake mixes equals one 9×13 pan, so you are really paying almost $8 for a large cake. Worth every bite, though.
This year, God willing, my Israelis are coming in. To say that I am excited is an understatement. When I Zoom with them and I try to entertain the girls with stuffed animals, they get upset because they can’t get the stuffed animals out of the computer. It is very sad and frustrating, so I am very much looking forward to giving them as many stuffed animals as their parents will allow.
And now I have to go make the kosher-for-Passover chicken soup. Wishing you all a peaceful Passover prep.
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck still doesn’t know why Fanta can’t be kosher for Passover if all of the other sodas can…. Maayim Chaim for everyone!
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