Another family in my congregation invited me for the first seder tomorrow night. It was to be their family, another family, one other individual, and me. This morning they sent email: the host is sick and contagious, and can anybody else host? I offered. The other family wrote back and said they had made alternate plans when they heard about the health situation (I gather that there was prior discussion with hopes that it would pass). The host clarified that they are all presumed contagious and so would be staying home. That left me and the other singleton.

So I sent her email and said hey, I'm game if you are. (Offers of food had been free-flowing, so I wasn't going to have to cook everything at the last minute.) Meanwhile, I checked back with my synagogue to see if anybody needed a place to go at the last minute and also checked with some people whose plans I knew to have been uncertain, but everybody was settled. While waiting for her reply I wondered what I would do if she bailed, and found myself wondering whether I could fulfill my obligation through a second-night seder that starts before sundown (as the one I'm going to will) or what it would be like to read the haggadah alone or whether it was too late to ask the Chabad rabbi for help.

But she was up for it, so fine, we both figured -- we can have a small seder, get to know each other better, and have a grand time. It'll be good.

A few hours later I got a call from another family from the minyan -- they'd heard through the grapevine that I needed a place and would be happy to have me. I said there was another person who would be stranded if I accepted and could she come too? Yes yes, of course. So I accepted for both of us, sent email to tell her what happened and make sure it was ok, and she's happy to accept.

So I went from "sure, I can pull a seder out of thin air; we have food, we have wine, we have haggadot, and we are mighty!" to everything working out. The food I would have taken to the original seder will be welcome at the new one, and plans for the second night are unaffected. Whee!