My mom died of covid. It was a popular way to die this winter – her death was one day away from the peak covid deaths reported by my state. So I feel bittersweet about the holiday this year. My sister points out that it’s only one fewer person than in most prior years, but it just feels so much smaller.
Anyway, my daughter, my son, my daughter-in-law, my sister, and her husband will join me and my husband. I have two brothers, but one hates anything religious, and the other is still hiding from covid because his partner is immune compromised. We invited his sons, but one lives in CA and the other got a better offer. 
So it’s just 7 people, which feels so small…
I won’t be serving gefilte fish this year. My dad used to like it, and my mom always ate a piece for tradition, but no one else likes it. We’ll still have boiled eggs and matzo ball soup. My sister will bring the soup and the charoset.
This year I leaned on my adult children to contribute, and my daughter will make a salad, and my son will make his wife’s family’s traditional flourless chocolate cake of affliction. We’ll be long on desserts, because I’m still making my family’s traditional lemon angel pie. (sort of an upside down lemon meringue, or a lemon creamsicle, with a meringue crust, a layer of lemon cream, and a layer of vanilla-flavored whipped cream.
The main course will be Madhur Jaffrey’s barbequed leg of lamb. It’s marinating in the basement now. My son requested chicken with ginger and scallions, but (1) I’ve never made a large quantity, and I’m not sure how well my recipe scales and (2) it uses soy sauce, and I don’t know how it would come out with the wheat-free tamari I use during Passover. So it’s Indian lamb, which is delicious. We’ll also have Madhur Jaffrey’s dry potatoes with mustard seeds, which are fabulous. So at least it will be a feast.
And of course we’ll have matzo, and fresh greens (parsley), and charoset and bitter herbs, and wine, and grape juice. The Kedem kosher grape juice really is better than the stuff Welsh sells. In fact, the kosher-for-passover stuff that Welsh sells is better than what they sell the rest of the year – more juice, fewer additives, and it tastes a lot better. No Manichevitz this year. My mom always wanted to have a little for tradition, and I figured Elijah would appreciate the traditional stuff, as well, but the rest of us either drank real wine or grape juice, so that’s what we’ll have.
Oh, and we are modifying the ritual of the seder plate a little. We added an orange years ago, but after talking to a guy who knew the woman who created that ritual, we will not just discuss the orange and the role of women, but eat the orange, and spit out the seeds to reject homophobia, and talk about the richness and fertility of our lives when everyone is included, male, female, straight, gay, cis, and trans.
No children this year. 
Not even any new-to-the-seder visitors to invite to read the four questions. But I did buy a dumb “ten plagues” themed game to share at the table. And it will still be a nice family holiday.
And even if it’s only 7 it will be nice to eat with more people that the people I live with. I haven’t done much of that since the pandemic.