I
have been a planning fool!...this year, so far, I am ahead of schedule. I even got to the Passover store early enough to get all my dry goods before it feels like the last plane out of Saigon!...(For those of you too young to get that reference, it is related to the panic and horrific end days of the Vietnam war when the US was pulling out and anyone who had collaborated and worked with the Americans were trying to escape, as the Americans tried to get themselves out.) I have planned the meal, went through all the recipes and figured out what will be needed...(aka
the list)
I was so early that there were these nifty Bedikas Chometz sets for 99 cents!....feather, candle, wooden spoon and large wide mouth bag to deposit those wayward crumbs!...how cool....
Additionally I have gotten a bit crafty too.... this is the first year with the exception of my husband's very secular brother there will be no family (except the hubby and I) at the home Seder...I managed to wrangle some Bu-Jews...some UU-Jews...and some non Jews to join us....I see it as a mitzvah to be hosting this second night Seder...
I decided that for this rag tag array of adults, I am going to try and make it fun...I found a Haggadah, The Santa Cruz Haggadah that is jewishly intact, the 15 required rituals are there, but it it full of fun and meditative extras...if there was a crowd for made for this Haggadah the ones coming to my abode second night are the ones!
I also saw online a novelty called "A Bag of Plagues"...well I decided this would be an interesting Passover favor to hand out to the guests...but I'm not about to fork over the crazy money being asked for such a trivial thing...no! So I went ahead and made my own! and yes ...after all is said and done, they are cheaper.
This was a fun activity...I usually order little plastic prizes for the little kids I see in my mental health therapy practice....behavior modification type work...so I just went to town on the Oriental Trading web site
http://www.orientaltrading.com/I found little bead jars that worked wonderfully for the "blood" and "lice." When my husband came home and saw my hands all red...he paused and said, with a certain you look like you have gone mad eyes, "what ya doin' honey?..."Making Blood!" A little kosher for passover red and blue dye, dish soap and potato starch...whala BLOOD! Lice was a bit harder, so I am claiming some Sephardic heritage and used broken pieces of wild rice...if I needed I guess I could have gone out side and found som
e tiny pebbles and that would have worked too.
So over the past three days I have packed up the dining room (yea hooray we are moving with in a month!) and un-packed all the dishes for the holiday and put them in their place! I'm a moving, packing and now Passover cleaning fool!..If I can catch my breath I will check in again...off to work...yes I still have to work.
the list) 
This was a fun activity...I usually order little plastic prizes for the little kids I see in my mental health therapy practice....behavior modification type work...so I just went to town on the Oriental Trading web site http://www.orientaltrading.com/
e tiny pebbles and that would have worked too.
Well we know how to have a hot time on the ol' town.... yup we spare no expense! Shopping at the Costco on a Saturday night with my honey...what beats that! All joking aside, really ...I love shopping with my husband, it makes it so much more fun. I learned recently that the Costco nearest to us has an amazing array of kosher food. The entire on premises bakery is kosher dairy. They had a pretty good cheese collection, along with pre-packaged prepared foods.... and they also had an ok collection of Kosher for Passover stuff as well... never mind that a lot of their grocery items were also kosher as well... who knew! 
