Passover with Cousins

The first seder fell on a Saturday night, so we decided to spend it in Chico with my cousins whom we rarely see because they live so far away. Wendy and Eddie are my first cousins, children of my Aunt Judy z"l (who just passed away 3 weeks ago) and Uncle Ron. We were raised 8 houses apart and spent 13 years closely united.

Not able to take any time off from work, the 3 of us flew to Sacramento at 8:30 PM on Friday. We spent the night with Eddie, his wife of almost 5 years!!! Jeannie, and Jacob (almost 4). Hadarya is an amazing traveler who slept the entire plane ride, transferred to the car, and then to a new bed on the floor at their house. We had a delightful morning playing in their beautiful house and getting to know Jacob. Hadarya and Jacob played so well together!

We borrowed their car and drove just under 2 hours to Chico to be with Wendy, Cassidy (9) and Callie (4). It was a fun, busy, 24 hours in Chico! Hadarya could not enough of playing with the big girls. She really loved Callie's kitchen and slide.




Callie was amazing at sharing her toys and really had a ball with Hadarya. She enjoyed the goats, the hammock (but not walking across the grass to get to it!), and drawing on the sidewalk with chalk.














The seder itself was ok. It was the typical seder my dad likes to run but not so conducive to young children and not so inspiring to read words from a book. We forgot our bag of plagues and so things were rushed and hurried and the best part was dinner. Being with our family was what was important this holiday. It was great fun to watch Hadarya search for the afikomen with her cousins. She figured out how to look by watching them and grabbing something.















We drove back to Sacramento to spend the afternoon and evening before our flight with Eddie, Jeannie, and Jacob. Hadarya loved playing outside in the sandbox and exploring the stairs and new toys! Jacob was so sweet about sharing his toys and did a great job at pulling off his Spiderman mask when Hadarya needed to make sure he was still there! We flew home at 8:30 PM and Hadarya stretched across our laps and slept the whole way...into the car...and into her own bed! It was great.

Both sets of cousins are going to visit us in San Diego this summer (June and August) and we can't wait to show off the fun in our town with them. It's going to be so much fun!