Tonight, my immediate family gathered for leftovers.

Sometimes, if there's a larger group, we actually have a second seder. But, since I was really starving by the time I arrived, I voted to skip the seder and go right to the festive meal.

I was the only one who voted this way.

So, I lit the candles, said a prayer and poured a glass of wine. I said another prayer, took a sip and asked where the food was.

Within moments, there was food on the table and, under the guise of doing a "partial seder," I put a dab of horseradish on a piece of matzoh, then covered the whole thing with charoset. Yum! As I was eating, it came to my attention that the only reason my mother wanted to do a seder was because the soup was not yet hot enough to eat. (Of course, my mother's definition of hot is about 20 degrees warmer than mine.)

Anyway, once the secret was out, we decided it didn't matter how long the soup was going to take. We'd busy ourselves with conversation and chopped liver.

And that's basically how it went until the soup arrived, followed by the main dish and the dessert, a wonderful frozen confection of vanilla ice cream and pieces of a flourless chocolate torte.

And then, after more laughter and such, it was time to call it a night. After all, tomorrow, we have to get up and go to work.