And then

we spent Shabbos as normal. Services, food, a little rest in advance of the Seder on Saturday evening. I even got oldest to rest, warning her that no sleep in the afternoon=no staying up late for the seder. So she napped, I rested a little, Mrs. slept, etc.

Youngest went to bed at the regular time, but oldest stayed up. The seder is one of the highlights of the Jewish calendar, and the purpose is to review the story of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. As the bible reports often, God refers to Himself as the One who took us from Egypt, so clearly this is the seminal event in the creation of the Jewish Nation. So you tell the story, you eat the matzah and bitter herbs, and you get to dinner at a truly unreasonable hour.

Oldest was terrific. She did the Four Questions (Ma Nishtana) as the youngest awake in the room, though technically the dog is younger in human years. She sat quietly as we read the story in the Haggadah, and we stopped to explain things periodically so she wasn't bored. Her school had laid a lot of the groundwork, so she was familiar with a bunch of the highlights. Plus our hostess had bought a package of toys to represent the 10 plagues, so we got to play with those at the appropriate time. Jumping frog, sticky hand with boils, sick cow with bulging goopy eyes, etc.

She gets through dinner, which ended around 12:15 AM. Past my bedtime, let alone hers. I told her to go search for the Afikomen, which is traditionally hidden for the kids to find & then beg for loot once they find it. (Originally the Afikomen was the Passover sacrifice, which served as dessert when we had a Temple. Now it's yet another piece of Matzah. Joy.) Her gift, a Belle (of Beauty & the Beast fame) doll, had been purchased long before, was in the car with them when they went down to DC, but the proprieties must be observed. So she finds it, we show her the doll, and she goes off to bed.

And comes out ten minutes later, crying sadly that she hadn't had dessert. I promised her dessert the next day, told her none of us had any (true), and she went to sleep. We finished up around 1:30 or 1:45, and went to bed exhausted.