Passover Seder at a Distance, or, The Geppetto Project

The Swedish  Labryrintspel game with one of two tilt knobs

                                       
It started with a call from my sister-in-law Ricki. While she had extra time for organizing during the shelter in place order, she unearthed a Swedish game that she and Dean played when they were children. When she realized that the wooden frame was broken, she called brother Dean to see if he could fix it. She began calling him Geppetto, the kindly old woodcarver and creator of Pinocchio.

This label is affixed to two sides of the game

The object of the game is to get the ball past all 60 holes by tilting the board using the two knobs 

Things being complicated these days, we chose a meeting place halfway between Ricki's house in San Francisco and ours in Berkeley. The Rustic Bakery in Larkspur across from the Larkspur/San Francisco Ferry terminal was agreeable to both parties, and we preordered sandwiches to eat during the trade-off.

The liaison went successfully and we agreed to meet again in Marin the following Friday when Geppetto had completed his repairs to the "labyrintspel." Ordinarily we could have returned the game during our annual Seder at Ricki's, but sadly there would be no family gathering this year.

Last year's festive Seder celebration at Ricki's

At some point I realized that if there would be no Seder, there would be no matzo ball soup, my favorite part of the Passover meal. As the Pollycoves say: "Such a tragedy!" Then I got the bright idea to ask Ricki to make her incredibly delicious version and hand it off at our next meeting in Larkspur. We could trade Ricki's soup for the repaired Labyrintspel - a family affair. I was hesitant to ask her because I knew the hours she puts in boiling chickens for broth and preparing her feather-light matzo balls from matzo meal, a technique she learned from her mother Rosalyn. But when I did ask, she happily agreed to do her matzo ball magic.

Ricki in her mask at the soup handoff  at The Rustic Bakery

During this exchange we enjoyed more chicken salad sandwiches and chardonnay on a beautiful sunny day in Marin County.  Sadly, this would be our last meeting before Passover.

Our simple but satisfying Seder meal

                       An abbreviated home ceremony and a bowl of Ricki's superb matzo ball soup

                                                                HAPPY PESACH