Passover in Madison Part 2

The next day saw the arrival of the Provan's.  We had a few moments to catch up with each other when the women all departed  for a little sort of surprise for Sarah.

Could it be that there was some more Champagne?

Any chance these two are related:

 

    Sunday night Chad and Rachel were sent off to celebrate their anniversary.  Sarah and Alex volunteered to take on the babysitting duties.  Eventually Rachel stopped calling every hour to check on things which were well in hand.  The Grandparents eventually left and Noah and Eva were the ideal house guests.

Monday Morning saw an early morning return to the kitchen.  Food to be cooked, tables and chairs to be rounded up. Kids to be enjoyed. Did I say food to be cooked?   Noah did a great job setting the table.  He did have some assistance, but he made a good share of the decisions.

The Mother's Club - some dispute on who's in charge!        

   The Seder started at 5:00 PM Swedish Time.  We enjoyed the presence of the Swedish contingent via Skype on the iPad.  Debra, Nils, and Ami joined us with Debra lighting the candles to start the holiday.     We've tried the Skype thing before, but before this it was disappointing.  First off was the fact that it was after Midnight in Sweden and then there was no sense of communication.    This year we put the iPad in the middle of the table and Debra was free to put in her two cents and we could talk freely with the Swedes.  Then of course there was the discussion of the importance of questions for the holiday.  When asked if he had any questions, Noah started things off with "When are we going to eat?"  We learned what "Why is this night different" sounds like in Swedish and we were off with everyone sharing the reading and discussion.

       We signed off the iPad for dinner.  The food, as expected, was incredible.  Besides a wonderful assortment of dishes for the meal, the desert of Strawberries Romanoff was a big hit.  No one left hungry.
  Still not quite sure about what Debra subbed as gluten free Matzah.  Never considered the implications of a gluten free diet on Passover food, let alone the challenge (OK impossibility) of finding Pesadic products in Smalandsstenar.  After the meal, Noah, Leslie and Caroline helped by finding the Afikomen and we hooked back up with the Swedes.  We finished off with a good round of songs and then Norm impressed us all with his rendition of Chad Gadya.

                                                           Next year in Tully.

Passover in Madison Part 1

Sarah called for a Seder in Madison and people arrived from both coasts for the event. She further arranged for the Seder to take place so that Nils and Debra could be part of it via Skype, and not have to stay up till 3 in the morning.

        Melanie and David arrived on Friday to be picked up in Sarah new Mini then off to the house to mellow out with Max till Alex arrived and we went off to dinner.

 
  The next morning  was chilly - oh yes and a bit of snow flew, but Noah wanted to go out.  After two playgrounds, extensive bird chasing and exploration David started getting pretty cold.  Noah didn't care.  We won't expand on what Saba had to say to finally convince him to come in.

Later that Saturday, Rachel and Chad arrived after they pilgrimage from Boston with Eva and Noah.  Ellie and Sue also arrived from Trumansburg.


     As you might imagine, there was much holding of children.

During all this of course was the issue of preparing food for Monday.   The kitchen stayed pretty busy the whole weekend.  To keep Max entertained  we borrowed a neighbor to come over and try to wear him out before things got really crazy.

 


Little did they know, but there was a surprise was a surprise party held that night after dinner for Sue and Ellie.   That came off without a hitch.

There was much laughter and yes, I think the first of the Champagne appeared.

Eva's Naming

Last Friday we were off to Boston for Eva's Naming..  We arrived at Rachel & Chads around 6:00 Friday evening for a short visit.  Poor Noah had just been diagnosed with strep so was, shall we say, somewhat fragile.
Despite this we had our obligatory Noah & Saba chase in between visits with Rachel, Chad, Ellie and Sue.

Primary activity seemed to be Eva Holding.


Later that night Sarah and Alex arrived to join in the festivities.  The next morning was the naming at morning services at Congregation Dorshei Tzedek where we were joined by Chad's folks and nephews.  Noah was sick so Nana stayed home to play with him.  Eva charmed everyone throughout the service and the Oneg.  After a quick nosh there, we headed back to the homestead for yet more food, move family and more visitors.


And more Eva holding

Oh, yes, she does have her own opinions,,,,
















By the time we left on Sunday, everyone was pretty tired......

Busy Weedend

Ok, I'm three weeks behind.  Back on Jan. 20th, we started with a trip to Rochester on Friday where David dropped Melanie off at Kate and Aaron's for their trip to Disneyland.  I stopped in to check out the Shen Basses at the String shop, then off to Syracuse Artist Pianos to check in on their piano music and then hop a flight to Boston just before the lake effect shut down the airport.

After a short flight and a short trip on the T, Chad picked me up in Newton Highlands and I got to the house in  time to share snack with Noah as well as some good Saba time. Saturday morning it became clear just how good it was I had come as Rachel had gone into labor early that morning.

We all took a nice walk to the nearby playground and Rachel and Chad returned to the house while Noah and I checked out the swings and touched up the shoveling.  Just after noon, Rachel and Chad headed off to the hospital and at 2:05 pm, all 8lbs .04oz of Eva Joyce Pytel came into the world.


 
All are doing fine and the baby is gorgeous  Ellie arrived to help on on Sunday and I got to spend some time visiting Rachel and Eva at the hospital before I headed back to Tully.  

A good weekend.

Sweden 2010 Part 2

It remained pretty chilly while I was there (2-10 degrees F) and I'm always struck how much the trees look like they are out of a fairytale.

Besides playing duets 

and hanging out

we went shopping and visiting.  I was a little put out when my Amex card was declined at the grocery store (where I have used it for the last three years with no problem).  Same thing happened with my Chase Visa.  Thankfully  Tompkins Trust came through - they took my debit card with no problem.

     Debra and Nils look great and have become quite the cooks.  I certainly ate more healthily there than I do at home. She also showed me some of the art she has been doing and we hung up a new ( at least to me) painting which I also forgot to take a picture of.

    One night we all went out to a restaurant for dinner.  It was fun to catch up with Soren and somewhat new to see Debra order fish!  Then it was back to Ami's where I forced everyone to watch our Alaska video.
    Another sign that 'The Times They Are A-Changin'  was brought home when I went into the bank the next morning to convert a couple of old AMEX traveler's checks into SEK.  The teller's first comment was: "this is unusual."  When someone came over to help, they couldn't even find an option in the bank software to process it. .

  This year's new Swedish word was "fika" - visiting for afternoon  coffee.  One day we went over to Andreas and Linda's for fika where I was introduced to (and enjoyed) white chocolate saffron fudge and saffron coffee cake.  Another day Anna came over to Nil's and Debra's with a "tigermatte" (toy tiger rug).  As with most toy's, the box was the real hit.

 As was Anna's new hat - Debra has become quite the knitter!





My trip home was mostly as expected except for the heightened level of security.  Had to empty my suitcase twice along with the joys of private interview and body search in CPH and of course, everyone enjoys running the gauntlet of security in Newark.  In Tully, there is a lot less snow than when I left and we're looking at 40 degrees today.






It was a great visit, but I'm glad to be home and tucked in with Melanie for the New Year.  Best wishes to everyone for 2011!

Sweden - Dec. 2010

I left the US just ahead of the storms that closed the East Coast and the trip was quite easy and pleasant.  Arrived around 7:00 am in Copenhagen and it was pitch black.  The car rental place was supposed to be open at 7, but apparently that doesn't include the week after Xmas.  When I finally did get someone an hour later, they couldn't find my car.  It went on like this till decided to issue me a new car.  Quite a line a built up by this time.  I asked to confirm that the car had winter tires.
I was told no.
I said (and forgive me as I can't find the quotation marks on this keyboard) I need winter tires to drive in Sweden!
I was told Yes
Then I'd like them
No, you  can't
Well, then, what should I do?
Rent the car.

I wouldn't have thought twice about it except Sweden was covered in snow - to the extent that the trains were all backed up and the highways looked pretty snowy.

I thought twice and rented the car.  Cute little Nissan, about the size of our paddleboat.  Fortunately on the day after Xmas hardly anyone was on the road and I had no real problems getting to Smålandsstenar.

It has been great to see everyone and catch up. 

Debra and Nils have rerranged the apartment and it looks great.  We got to play some duets, do some shopping and just hang.  Its been pretty cold and they have a lot more snow than is normal for this time of year.   
One of the great stories has been how the Swedish Transport Administration has turned to antique rolling stock to get things back to normal.  Apparently the newer trains bought from places like France and Italy can't handle the cold and the wheels freeze up. Also they have no cowcatcher and can't deal with anything on the tracks. So they've pulled stuff out of the museum to clear certain tracks.


 











Tuesday, Ami lent us her car (I mean my tires weren't even all season) and we took a trip to Jonkoping where we visited the Match Museum.

Who would have thought the matches were a major economic factor in the 19th century - and that the profits were enough to help rebuild governments after wars.  Small museum but well worth the visit just to see the ingenious machinery.

Night Before the defense

This past weekend, Melanie was off to Boston to Kvel over Zack's Doctoral Defense.

After posing for pictures, nutritional supplements were ordered:

Purhaps a bit too ambitious

Congratulations Dr. Blumkin