I’ve mentioned before that Christopher and I celebrate a few of the traditional Jewish holidays like Purim, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover. {how have I not blogged about Rosh Hashanah?? I just went looking for a post and couldn’t find one. It’s the very first Jewish holiday we ever celebrated! Obviously I need to be better about blogging about it this year, haha!} We aren’t Jewish by race or religion, but as Christians we really like learning about our roots in the Jewish faith. Anyway, Passover began Monday at sundown. A group of 30 of us met together at Jeremy and Sarah’s home for the Passover Seder.
The last meal Jesus ate with his disciples before His death and resurrection was the Passover meal. The spiritual theme of Passover is one of salvation by the blood of a perfect, spotless lamb. I know that may sound super strange to those of you who weren’t raised in a religious tradition, but let me try to explain. When Jesus died on the cross, He died after living a perfect and sinless life. He took on all of our sin so that we can stand before God blameless. Similar to long ago when Jews would sacrifice a perfect, spotless lamb (or goat) as a temporary atonement for their sins. But the difference is that Jesus was resurrected. The difference is that Jesus only died once, unlike the lambs that were slaughtered year after year. The difference is that Jesus chose to do it because He loves us. That’s a big deal, my friends.
(all our traditional Passover food)
So every year we come together to share a Passover seder for several reasons. First of all, to remember what Jesus did for us. Second to take time to remember why we need Him so desperately. Third, to pass on the story (especially to children). Traditional Jewish families will often read the entire book of Exodus to remember the story of God’s deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. We read the entire death and resurrection story of Jesus Christ. It is a great opportunity for children to ask questions (why do we sit on the floor? why is everyone wearing white? why are we eating yucky food? etc) and hear the story of Jesus’ redeeming love and sacrifice. 
Plus, not all the food is yucky – just the bitter herbs. 
Speaking of some of the non-yucky food. I made a recipe from a friend-of-a-friend named Becky R. She’s actually Jewish by race and this recipe is from her family. It was really tasty!
(I actually snapped this shot before I left the house – all our bowls/plates/cutlery/napkins/etc at Passover were white)
I doubled the recipe so forming the meatballs took forever, but it was well worth it! Plus, I like this form of boiling meatballs instead of frying them. It was a wonderful Passover Seder and it has me looking forward to Easter even more!
Family Shot on Easter Sunday! 
My parents-in-law are such special people. I just love them!
We also got to have Easter lunch with my grandparents. It was good to catch up with them. Plus I got to hear all about the upcoming 3k that my grandfather is participating in! Talk about inspiring!
And like every year, we dyed eggs!
Aren’t Christopher’s little dino-eggs so cute? They cracked me up! They are definitely still sitting in our fridge just like that. So every time I open the refrigerator door, I laugh at their little smiling faces. 
