Thursday, March 18, 2010

Shamrocks and Shenanigans

I like St. Paddy's Day. It's just kind of fun and I like celebrating some kind of something traditional for the sake of my gringo, but Irish, children. Plus, it's fun to see everyone out participating by simply wearing green. One of my favorite things is looking out at the kids at recess and seeing a sea of green. It's very pleasing to the eye, as strange as that sounds. I also love having my kids get so excited about it all. You know, the making sure that you're wearing green when you go to bed the night before and even up through the next night so no one will even have a nanosecond to sneak a pinch in. My kids take it very seriously. It's just fun to have a little day that stands out amongst the others.
We're totally all about eating green food all day too. I forgot to take pictures, but for breakfast we had green eggs and green toast for some and others had Lucky Charms. I was asked if I could make green cream cheese for bagels, but I didn't get that far. For lunch, the boys had green grilled cheese sandwiches, green pears, and even green yogurt. Of course, the drinks of the day are always dyed that beautiful emerald color. It's just kind of fun. That is, until dinner time...
My Irish husband loves his corned beef and cabbage. Me, not so much. Actually, let's make that not at all. But, on the holiday of his heritage, I suck it up and make it for him. This is torture for me. Really, I honestly dry heave while I make it. I just don't like it at all. Yuck! I was lazy this year and just had green toast, instead of making Irish Soda Bread like I usually do. I kind of regretted that because it's the only thing I do like of our Irish meal. I've been blessed in many years to be prego at the time this holiday rolls around and hence, I am excused from actually eating with the family. But not being in the womanly way, I had to be strong and eat some to set a good example for my kids. Plus, I would make them do the same so I figured I couldn't be hypocritical. So I totally choked it down, gagging every few minutes.
Now everyone besides me in the family has that Irish blood. I think that's like a requirement to liking corned beef and cabbage. Kade put up a little bit of a fuss at first about the idea of it, but after he finally tried it, he ate it just fine. There were no complaints from Nick, and Skylar, well, she is a true Irish lassie. She had fifths. Why is it that the one meal that I honestly, truly can't stand at all is such a hit? Oh the irony.

2 comments:

Abby said...

I promise I'm not laughing at your plight, but the image of you dry heaving while making the dinner made me laugh out loud. What a champ for eating something you detest. I love St. Patrick's Day, too because of the no need of work on my part. We always have something green to wear, and we eat green food that day too. It's a no brainer...just the kind of holiday I like.

Mindy said...

You are such a great mom and a great wife too. I am not as nice as you. I refused to make the corn beef because I hate it. Maybe I should be nicer.