What a trooper you are, Bob! I cannot imagine having a dinner for 18 people. You should be proud of yourself...

Cathie

Cathie,
I wouldn't have even tried, without the help of my gracious wife.
Only one of the 18 is a direct family relative of hers, her son.
The rest are my 'brood' (from my 1st wife) & my cousins.
She's from Missouri- her mom's back there, and her Dad's in Texas,
and BTW.....she's Episcopalian !

Not to sound sexist but what a man you are. Many men not in pain or with health issues would of not done that much work. You should be proud. I see all the people buying there huge boxes of matza. I would last a day with no bread.

I just had to share what just happened at Dunkin.

I just came back from Dunkin. Now I speak a few languages. I know some Hebrew (not a lot, just a bit), and I know some Arabic, (enough to order breakfast at Dunkin because they rarely speak english).

So this morning was yet another Arabic lesson. The guys are teaching me Arabic. I now know how to order No. 3 on the menu. I say "Medfudluck, Idini, 3, (Please give me No. 3). then I say "Shokran and they say "Afwan" which is Thanks you and You're Welcome.

I also learned how to say "Have a nice day", which sounds like "Yoma Si eed.

So far so good.

But today was the kicker. I learned how to day Good Morning. which roughly sounds like 'SABA EL HERRRRRRRR".

Well, I'm sitting up in my little table and one of the guys walked over to me and said "Melody, say Good Morning again." So I go "SABA EL HERRRRRRR", and all of a sudden I hear someone burst out laughing, and there.....

WAS A JEWISH GUY WEARING A YAMULKE, STUDYING THE TORAH, at his little table in the corner and he's laughing hysterically and I go "so you think it's easy learning how to talk Arabic with the rolling rrrrr's???

He fell off the chair. I said 'Hey, I'm italian, my husband's jewish, I have to learn Arabic to order my breakfast, give me a break".

He laughed so hard I think his yamulke fell to the side.

We began chatting. Me, the arabic guy, and the jewish guy. and We laughed.

How nice to see all of us laughing, getting along.

The world should do that more often.

Who knows what words I'll learn tomorrow??

So to all of you I say 'Yoma Si eed"

Have a nice day!!!! lol

Next Time? Give each member coming and 'participating' a chore...One sets table [the actual annual pre-set cleaning can be done over days ahead] another deals with the trash that's bound to number in multiple bags, another to rinse and hold, one after dinner to empty DW and then refill, and on and on. Of course, you can 'delegate' some dishes to be done by other family members and toted to dinner...maybe sharing recipies as you go along, so some tastes and traditions aren't lost on the way. That doesn't, of course, eliminate the NEED to CLEAN the whole house before they all come [get tired thinking about such events] WHEW!
While I'm not of your faith, I have faith of my own and I know and truly appreciate that of true family gatherings. Sounds as if you had one heck of a good one! And that, is what I understand Passover is all about, celebrating family and other aspects of life. To me that is an important aspect to our PN overall health and welfare among other things.
Of course, I truly hope that no older relative started to tell tales about you when you were in knickers tho! Don't you just hate that?
I am glad that you were able to bring some goodies to your son! I bet that did more for his spirits than most of what's been going on for him! 's - j

PS? I could do it, I think, but only as a buffet! My tables' not THAT big!