Excuse Me Waiter, There's a Locust In My Water

Passover was wonderful as always. Passover and Thanksgiving are my very favorite holidays because they are all about sitting down with the people you love and spending lots of time enjoying each other's company, giving thanks, drinking, and eating good food. What a wonderful tradition.

For as many years as I can remember, we've been celebrating Passover with the Bernsteins. They are dear family friends; I grew up with Archie and Simcha. Renee sets the most beautiful Seder table.

Here are Renee and my mom getting ready for the festivities.

And this is what I saw when I got to my seat at the table. Not your typical Passover place setting, right? I knew we were in for some fun....

Who doesn't love finger puppets? The finger puppets represent the 10 plagues on Egypt (locusts, boils, etc...) And there were face masks. Here are our lovely hosts Renee and Steve playing the part of the wild beasts!

Delly and Renee aren't looking so sweet anymore, are they?

Brian and I were the Butcher and the Angel of Death....

Adam and Mari were the Cat and Water... (by the way, Mari was a big hit at the Seder. Everyone agreed that she was the best first-Passover gentile yet. Maybe it was her leading of the loud, raucous songs that did it...)

and George and Susan were the Fire and the Ox....

Overall, a wonderful celebration. The food was delicious, the company was great, we had good political and cultural conversations, and we remained aware, amongst all our silliness, of the real meaning of Passover. We were all thankful to be free, as Jews, to celebrate together on this holiday.

But, I'm going to be honest with you.....it all started with this....about 4 bottles of it actually.