Pesach Sameach! Part 2: An Israeli Seder

Monday:
Hannah and I hopped on a bus to Modi'in to spend the chag of pesach. The Elbaz family was a unique one. Mom is American, made Ailyah young and married an Israeli. It is a family of artists. Their specialty is glass, blowing and stained glass. They even have their own website, here it is. Robyn, the American mother, has a brother who owns a beautiful hotel on an island off Honduras. Here is the like for the hotel. We hung out there, making fresh lemonade from their lemon tree in the backyard and took a quick nap before the seder. The seder was at papa Armon's brother's house just 20 minutes away. The family was all secular Israeli but also spoke a bit of English, for me. The hagadot varied, luckily I got an English one. As they were reading Hebrew, I followed word for word in English. It is interesting to see how much or how little Hebrew is translated exactly into English.

The food was good. There were two other vegetarians also at the seder so we had our very own matzah ball soup! Haven't had that in a while. There were two little kids which entertained us for a while. The little 3 year old girl and I couldn't really understand each other but we still had fun.

Once the house was back in order and the clock struck midnight, we went back to the Elbaz's house. Our food comma carried us through the night.

Tuesday:
Instead of a second seder, which they don't do here in Israel, the Elbaz family has a BBQ with the same family including the next door neighbors. The daughter of the next door neighbor has a husband who is the wine and cheese guy at the shook so we chatted up with him. When we go visit him, he will give us some free samples of cheese and wine! The BBQ filled us up fast then it was time for hanging out and watching the Elbaz family make beautiful glass beads.

At night, we went to a family friend's house in the neighborhood who hosts lots of lone soldiers. We talked with them for a bit then went right to bed.

Wednesday:

Hannah, Me, Sister and Robyn

In the morning, we woke up to our alarms and went downstairs ready to make ourself the delicious matzah brie. We were already in luck because Robyn, the mother of the house, had already made it, but experimented by baking it. We ate that for brunch with home made cream cheese then got a ride back into Jerusalem.

That night, I was invited out with a few friends from the Boston area. I walked home and went right to bed.

It was a great few days - very well spent.