Seder Meal

I wanted to post this blog earlier, but we have had a very eventful and a little bit stressful past week in a half.  My car had an almost blowout on I-10.  Then when we got home, Drew's truck would not start.  I needed three new tires, and he needed a new battery.  Then my timing-belt in my car went.  Yes, this was all in one week.  Luckily family was in town to help us, and things are now looking up :). 

We had a fun Easter with my parents, my sister Erin, and Drew's parents.  My mom hid eggs around my house, and even though we can consider ourselves adults (sometimes), we ran around like children searching for eggs.  Drew, bless his heart, I think really caught into the childhood spirit and decided to stand on our coffee table...  Well, it did collapse underneath of him.  He was okay, I was not and had my freakout moment (I am not proud of this).  We assesed the damage, and we were able to fix it.  I will let you know how in my future DIY blogpost.

Regardless of how eventful my week was, Easter is really about the Lord sacrificing himself for us, and his week 2000 years ago was a lot worse then mine.  The past two years Drew and I have participated in a Seder Meal that our church puts together.  I love going and it really helps us get a glimpse of how the last supper went and the story of Passover.  Passover celebrates the entire sequence of events that led to the Israelites' freedom from slavery.  Our Passover Seder combines Christian influences as well.

 Our Youth Group serves and sets up the tables.

Drew excited about the meal.

Starting the meal you have to clean the house, and remove any trace of chametz (leaven or yeast).  Father Tom takes the children around and they find the chametz and throw it out the door.  Some of the children were not comfortable throwing food away.  It was cute.

On each table there is plate that consists of Parsley which represents life, Matzoh tosh representing the bread that sustained the Israelites, Bitter Herb Maror reminding us of how bitter the Israelites lives were as slaves in Egypt, Charoset-Maror which is dipping bitter veges into sweet apples and nuts to remember that even the most bitter things in life can be sweetened by our hope in God.  There is also a bone reminding us of the lamb sacrificed for the Israelites and the sacrifice of Jesus, and an egg (hagigah) symbolizing mourning and reminding us of the hardness of hearts that will not accept God's love.  Throughout the dinner you have 4 glasses of wine that you have to drink each glass all at once.  I filled my wine glass up just a little tiny bit, and at one time substitued water for wine...  I had a hard time keeping up.  No wonder the Apostles were falling asleep.

At  the end they brought out our actual dinner.

 It was a lot of fun, and a great reminder of how lucky we all have it :).

On Easter this Slider Turtle came to visit us in our backyard.  We took him to a secluded pond where hopefully he had a Happy Easter as well!

Have a great week,

The Vital's