This week is sponsored by the sugar food group.

Usually you can pretty much count on Passover and Easter falling near each other. Not so much this year. The Hebrew calendar has a leap month, and things are all askew. Passover and Easter are off by a month this year. So it comes to pass that it was just Purim on Thursday night, a holiday based off the Book of Esther. For the uninitiated, Purim involves dress-up costumes, merry-making, and lots of sweets. We made hamentashen with M. (our friend and Rabbi) on Monday. So naturally we ate them all week through Purim.



And of course, they got more hamentashen at school. And chocolate kisses, and my personal fave, "fruit" chews, which are actually corn syrup and FD&C dye #4097. I sucked it up and let them eat the crap. I don't want them to turn into horders because I don't let them sample the junk. Shoot, I loved that crap when I was a kid, when I got hold of it. I indulgently let them chow down.

Then there was the Purim carnival, which the girls loved, and the retelling of the Purim story, the Megillah. The kids had SUCH a great time. They snarfed kosher hot dogs, bowled for prizes, as well as tossed bean bags etc., and Chispa chose the coveted sticker-earrings from the prize table.




Today was Easter. Our block has an Easter egg hunt across two yards, and always includes the 2 Jewish families. Our girls were very excited, and along with the other set of Jewish sibs on our block, ventured off to engage in the pagan hunt for eggs filled with more chocolate and corn syrup solids, and some toys. Candy, the hunt for it, what's not to like? Again, I permitted them to chow down. Starbursts? Sure. Gummy frogs? Go nuts. Chocolate egg? Have at it. Jelly beans. Yep. Serious fun. And since it wasn't Passover, I didn't need to check for errant non-Passover friendly ingredients.