Matza, Merlot and More

While most people claim to hate middle school, I actually really enjoyed it. I loved it for many reasons including:

-Contacts: I tossed my over-sized (understatement), green, round glasses and was finally able to wear contacts. Amen.

-Team Elan: Minus the 5:45 a.m. practices, during middle school synchronized skating was a huge part of my life.

-Walking to school with my favorite neighbor, P: And when I say walking, I mean P's mom driving us two blocks so we wouldn't be late.

-Keeping old friends and making new ones: We were best friends then and we are best friends now... peace.love.pc.

And finally...

-Bar and Bat Mitzvahs: From airbrush tattoos to t-shirts galore, what could be better than attending over the top theme parties every weekend? Nothing.

Growing up, I was surrounded by many Jewish friends (shout out to J, K, and P). Because of this, I was able to attend Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Hanukkah celebrations, and I even learned some Hebrew along the way (Mazel Tov!). Well, I'm proud to say I can now cross "Passover Seder" off my list.

Before last Saturday the only Passover Seder I had seen was on a dramatic episode of Gossip Girl (Season 2, Episode 21: "Seder Anything"). I was told to bring two bottles of wine and a "Seder friendly" dish to pass. I quickly learned that Seder friendly is anything that doesn't rise and even though my cooking skills and equipment are limited, I resorted to chocolate covered strawberries. Yum.

Once everyone arrived, the service began. We sat around a table filled with Seder friendly dishes, tons of matza, a stack of yamakas, a variety of wine, and the Seder Plate. There were even printouts of the service so that everyone could follow along. Being in a room full of teachers, people joked that we had to highlight each transition word and prepositional phrase (ha). Overall, the Seder was very informative and even though I didn't find the afikoman, I still had fun.