Category Archives holidays

Pesach 2010 is here

Monday evening, Jewish people will be celebrating with their family and friends at the first Passover Seder. Right now, we are still putting the final touches on getting our house ready for Pesach. Not a lot to do, but time consuming along with other items in our regular day to day routine. As I head off to get things done, I wanted to share some of the items that NHL has made at Hebrew School recently. 

Crafts from Hebrew School

  • Bag to put the afikomen in.
  • Seder plate that includes a shank bone and roasted egg made out of Model Magic
  • Poems and items from Dayenu! A Passover Haggadah For Families and Children by Carol Boyd Leon 
  • Kippah that NHL made

We are basically finished shopping for Passover and only need to stop by and get some fresh produce at one point. To read more about past Passover celebrations, please check out some additional posts from past years:

Chag Sameach Pesach to all of my family and friends that celebrate.

TheAngelForever

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Passover shopping at Price Chopper

In less than a week, my family will be celebrating Passover. Thanks to that, this time of year can be quite hectic. TechyDad is in the midst of transforming our kitchen. It is time to get rid of our chametz and have only Kosher for Passover items. He cleans everything out, quarantines off non-Passover food, and will switch out our Passover pots and pans. This takes a lot of time and patience to do. Something that I really do not have a lot of – especially with everything else going on.

In addition to this, we have to shop for Passover food items. During Passover, we do not eat leavened foods and must make sure that meats, dairy and food other than fruits and vegetables are marked Kosher for Passover. In the past, this was a lot more difficult. As a child, I still remember going to the store and only seeing Matzoh and a few other items (like candy, cookies and cake) on the shelves. Over the last 5-10 years, this has changed drastically. Stores have started to carry a lot of different Passover foods. In the past, there may have been only an end cap at a store containing Passover food, now some stores have multiple aisles.

Passover shopping at Price Chopper

On Sunday, we went to two different Price Chopper stores in a search for some last minute Passover items. We needed Passover yogurt and cottage cheese. When we arrived at the second store, I decided to take out my camera and freak out the store share our adventure with you.

When we unsuccessfully finished looking for the yogurt (Dannon Naturals w/ Kosher for Passover stamp on them) and Price Chopper cottage cheese for Passover, I took out my camera. As we went around the corner, we were immediately met by the two large displays of Passover ready made cakes and cookies. It looks like a lot, but was not the only area with these items. When you go and look at the candy section there are more cookies, marshmallows, gum, and fruit snacks along with other items.

Lots of Passover goodies

From here, we went down the frozen food aisle. Almost half of the kosher frozen food section was filled with food for Pesach. I remember just a few years ago when there was just a small section of items. Now, you can find Dr. Pragers fish items (great for our kids), Meal Mart items including stuffed cabbage, vegetable soufles and much more.

Frozen food for Passover

Meanwhile, I was getting looks from some people. Not anyone in the store. No, my two year old was not a happy camper. This was his second grocery store of the day and he was tired and wanted to leave.

Mom, are we done yet?

On the other side of the aisle were spices, baking goods, canned items and boxed mixes. This year we are trying not to buy much if any of the packaged items. We want to try to limit these to only things for an emergency and focus on making healthier options.

A lot of choices this Passover

Of course, there was a lot of Gefilte Fish and tuna. Check out the price on Kosher for Passover tuna – Oy!

Canned fish for Passover

Then, we moved to the last aisle. Here, we found apple sauce, canned fruit, dried fruit, nuts, juices, soda and of course lots of Matzoh.

Passover shopping with the boys

Across from here was the butcher counter. Check our options (try not to collapse from the prices of kosher meat – thus the reason we are almost vegetarian at home). We picked up some of the Kosher Valley turkey to try. While I was at the Price Chopper blogging event a week ago it was suggested that we try this over the Empire turkey.

Kosher meat choices

In addition to this area, there was another large container with turkey and other meats for Passover time.

More meat options

Aside from the yogurt and cottage cheese, we only need fresh fruits and vegetables for Passover. Pretty much everything else is set, unless we want to try baking on our own.

So, will you come help us organize all of this for Passover now?  Please. . . I am willing to beg here!  For more posts about Passover from the past click here.

TheAngelForever

Disclosure: This shopping trip was a family adventure that was to Price Chopper for our Passover shopping. I decided to share our pictures to allow others to see how the world of Passover food shopping has changed. I received no compensation from Price Chopper and only wonder if anyone saw me with my camera while shopping.

 

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A tale of many tantrums

Today, NHL went back to school after two weeks off. This meant that JSL’s entertainment system was gone. Of course, this was made worse by the fact that JSL woke up after Daddy and NHL had left for the day. The reality of time with only Mommy was harsh. Sure we have fun, but I am not his six year old brother who is in constant motion.

After breakfast, I asked JSL if he wanted to head out to the post office and grocery store. He liked the idea of going out. Much to my surprise, he was really good about getting help putting on his shoes and coat. Recently, meltdowns are possible at this time because Mr. Independent wants to do everything on his own. Love that he wants to do this, but not when we are late to get NHL from school or on the way out to an appointment.

We had a nice ride to the post office. When I stopped in the car after to check things from the PO Box. the little guy let me know that this was not acceptable. When we pulled into the grocery store just down the street, there were protests. Mr. Independent was not happy that he was sitting in the cart. This is the face that I saw:

Toddler tantrum about to begin

Of course, that should have been a sign to turn around and leave. I did not and we continued into the store. JSL helped me to hold onto the coupons that printed out with my store card. He was content with that. We found some items in produce (new Tempeh to try) and continued on. When we got a few more aisles into the store, JSL wanted out. He kept saying "Let me out! I want to walk."  I told him that I needed his help to look for items.

This was about the point that I went back toward the front of the store and was greeted with the following:

Just around the corner

It was right about that point that I was ready to sit on the floor with JSL and have a tantrum. I like the concept of Passover, but the stress involved in the planning and the expense of the specialty foods that are Kosher for Passover makes it too much.

Luckily, the rest of the trip was not too eventful. We skipped actually looking in the Passover section, got the rest of the items we needed and went home. JSL was so excited to go and pick big brother up from school a few hours later that he fell asleep a block away from school!

Any ideas on how to combat independent toddlers that can not wander around the grocery store?

This is something new to me since NHL never did anything like this until he was older. Of course, I know the best solution is to simply shop without him – LOL! I will spare you details about the tantrum in the car later while going home from NHL’s swim lessons. Let’s just say it involved kicking and screaming since The Wiggles were not put on the CD.

TheAngelForever

 

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Happy Valentine’s Day 2010

Over the last week, I have been with the three loves of my life in a place that we all adore. There is so much to share, but getting back into the swing of things at home has been a major reality check.  It is still hard for me to process all that has happened on our family vacation at Disney World and at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

For now, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day. Here is a little something special from Disney World:

Disney Valentine's Day treat

And here are some new special memories of my three loves from our magical time last week.

Magical Memories of my boys

More from Disney World and the Social Media Moms Celebration coming soon.

TheAngelForever

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