St. Patrick's Day

I have a mom that absolutely loves holidays...every one of them, except maybe Halloween. But, that never stopped her from decorating and making us the most amazing homemade costumes (and I always felt bad for kids who had to buy theirs at the store). I'm not quite so gung-ho as she is, but because of her, I love holidays too. The big ones are wonderful celebrations and require much energy and preparation, all of which is worth it. But the simple ones, like St. Patrick's Day, are fun to celebrate, too, and require only a little creativity (or childhood experiences like mine).

We began the morning of March 17th with some of Steve's choice bagpipe music blasting through the intercom system to wake the younger kids. I already had green chocolate chip muffins baking in the oven and green eggs and ham (what my mom ALWAYS fed us on March 17th) on the stove. The milk was already dyed green in the boys' lunches and I welcomed them to my kitchen with a cheery "Top of the mornin' to ye, laddie!" as each of the boys entered the room. (Of course, the night before, I made sure they were all wearing something green, knowing their big sisters would be sure to check first thing.) The boys each smiled and hugged me, cheered for the green muffins and eggs, and Josh and Nathan even danced a jig or two in the dining room while I finished cooking breakfast. I was a little concerned for the girls, though. Their eye rolling and only near smiles all morning made me wonder if there was something wrong with their faces. Perhaps they think they're too old for that stuff now, being so mature and all, but I know inside they were laughing and somewhat grateful to have a mommy as silly as me. I sent them all off to school and work with the phrase, "May the luck of the Irish be with ye today!" ...More teenage eye rolling, but this time with real smiles.

The next day (because the actual holiday evening was way too busy for us) we went to my mom's house for her traditional St. Patrick's Day Dinner... Corned beef and cabbage, cooked carrots, green jell-o and green juice. (It's gotten better over the years, she used white grape juice this year, and real corned beef brisket - it was always kool-aid and a tiny can of corned beef when we were kids. She also added my sister-in-law's Scarborough potatoes to the menu...yum!). I brought cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream. It was amazing to me, even only 5 weeks post-knee replacement, she still had the house decorated with shamrocks, green tablecloths, Irish buttons to wear, green horns to blow, and every tiny detail taken care of (including writing down how many Weight Watcher's points each item on the menu would be). As much as she does, you'd think we were Irish or something. (I think my great-grandmother was half or quarter Irish, but I'm really not sure, so I hope I didn't lie to my kids...)

I smiled a huge smile as I told her about our morning celebrations and shared with her how much I appreciate the kind of mommy she was while I was growing up, so I could have these traditions, and re-create those same memories for my kids. ...And now I wonder how many of my siblings had green eggs and ham for breakfast on March 17th...?