Partying While Pre-Pesach Purchasing

The whole country seems to be in a pre-Pesach FRENZY.  The mall has pop-up kiosks full of housewares, and the grocery stores have huge displays of cleaning products for sale.  Ulpan and the kids' schools got out for Pesach break this past Wednesday, which is a full week earlier than the Boston calendar for this year.  While I appreciate the extra time in my schedule, it does seem a bit excessive.....What are your kids supposed to do with all that time off (let's assume they're not going to clean right alongside the parents)?  Ah, here comes the "Pre-Pesach Kaytana" (day camp) to the rescue.  Ilana is signed up to take a sewing camp for five hours/day from Sunday through Thursday.  Nothing similar for the teens, but Penina has become a very popular babysitter in the neighborhood  (amazing girl got four kids to bed on time the other night!).  She has also been helping our pregnant next door neighbor, who is past her due date, with Pesach cleaning and with their other kids (Chana and Penina even slept over there last Shabbos in case our neighbor needed to go to the hospital during the night).

We rented a car and went to Ikea.  (Amusing side note: here it's pronounced "EE-Kay-Ah" because "Eye-Kee-Ah" sounds like the word for vomiting.  Similar pronunciation with Kia brand cars).  It was....incredible....to see the whole store decked out for "the Holidays".  For Pesach.  Amazing.  Every table display was set up for a seder (seder plates for sale, too!):

couldn't resist taking a bite of the cardboard matza (no jokes about how could we tell it was different from the real stuff, please)

While we had the car, Penina and I did our large Pre-Pesach shopping trip to the big supermarket in the area.  The entire store was changed over to only Passover products within 48 hours of Purim ending.  We're at the point that most stores, if they sell chametz at all, have it on display racks outside the store, or in a very small section of the store with big signs all around warning that you are about to buy toxic waste.  Or something.  The general minhag seems to be that people shouldn't eat for the week or two leading up to Pesach, but we're not going to follow that one :)

It's funny to have a whole huge store Kosher for Passover and still feel like there's not much to eat.  That's because the vast majority of food items I have found are only certified for those who eat kitniyot (like beans and rice) on Passover.  Works in a country with so many Sephardim in it, but not for us Ashkenazis.....I do think it's cool that many people here can eat their beloved Bamba even on Pesach, though (peanut butter corn puffs.  It's like the ultimate "anti-Ashkenazi" food).

There were some unusual things that were kosher for Passover.  Like clear tape.  And paper napkins.

All in all, it's a very interesting time here!