St. Patricks Day Party

In celebration of my heritage, we hosted our second annual St. Patrick's Day party. My dad's mom was Irish, her name was Viola May Gallagher. I never had the chance to meet her since she passed away when my dad was only 15 years old. Dad came to the party and brought an old photo of him, his parents, and my aunts.

It was an intimate gathering this year filled with family, friends, bikes, love, laughter, food and drink. We started the evening with a short cruise around the neighborhood to work up our appetites.


After the cruise, we returned to the house for the Ruybalid family tradition of the Irish Car Bomb. Brent was the first to indulge...


Followed by my dad - it was his first one. That is our cousin Robin encouraging him.


Robin and I split one cos they are pretty filling. The Mosers, being purists, just had the straight Guiness in a frosted pint glass.


Brent made his famous corned beef and cabbage and I made Irish Bread Pudding with a Caramel Whiskey Sauce.


The wee ones (Madison & Charlie) had lime aide that Madison made and dyed green. Charlie's parents, The Mosers, are flexitarians so when the meat was brougt out he wispered to his mom that he didn't eat meat. Madison's parents, are also flexitarians, but she proceeded to eat three servings of the beef.

Everyone left at about 9:00 or so but Brent, Madison, and I stayed up until midnight eventually dancing in the living room to Rapper's Delight - the long (and not at all Irish) version. Next year, mommie will have less green wine....

Ms. Scarlet In the Conservatory with a Rope

Happy New Year!

We had a nice quiet New year's eve at home with Madison. Brent made a pot of his famous chili and I made a veggie tray. We also had salami and cheese, nuts, etc.

At the last minute we invited some friends but they we not able to make it. When I put out the veggie tray Madison said it looked pretty and "that sucks that nobody gets to see it" to which I responded "you know what doesn't suck?" "we can double dip!"

Since it was a pajama party, Madison and I wore matching jammies. This was the first time I have had Madison on New Year's in quite a few years so it was pretty exciting. Last year she had lots of fun at her dad's and even called me at midnight to wish me Happy New Year.

We played several board games. While Brent watched the end of his football game Madison and I played Scrabble and then Disney edition of Sorry. Then when Brent was ready we played the Monsters Inc. version of Life and then it was time for our favorite...Clue! Madison is not a good secret keeper so it makes it real easy to play with her. After Clue, we played Yahtzee.

The next morning, Madison jumped out of bed and said "wanna play Clue mommie?" and ran down stairs to set up the game while I cleaned up the house from our party.

It was a very peaceful night spent with the ones I love - you can't ask for anything more.