yom tov.

a time to spend with family.

there's nothing like family.

and there's no family quite like mine.

whether it's my own immediate family, with our special pesach traditions-
the food we eat-everything homemade, from orange juice to tomato sauce
the tunes we use-special traditional for pesach tunes, or the family's own favorites
the things we do at the seder-the hot-and-cold to find the afikomen, the way we say borei pri hagafen on the cups of wine, the way we belt out a certain line from hodu l'hashem ki tov

or aunts uncles and cousins-
the games we play-backgammon-i lose every single game! even when i cheat!
the things we discuss-confessions of flooding other people's apartments, discussing the properties of lead in displacing water
the way we entertain ourselves-watching the younger kids "perform a play" when in truth, it's just forty minutes of them pushing and yelling, one child running on and off the stage, waving pieces of kitchen dishes at everyone else, a two year old keeps wandering onto the stage and plunking herself down in the middle of the scenes, while my poor grandfather had to sit and watch as the kids systematically destroyed his house.

but that's what it's all about, right?

now i just hope there's nice weather tomorrow. or my family reunion will be relocated to my house, and i may not be so sane after that...