Traditions

My family had a tradition when we were growing up that for St. Patrick's day we would have corned beef for dinner, and that was the only time in year we had it. So it was pretty special. :-)
It's been a few years since I have been for St. Patrick's day and therefore a few years since I have had corned beef (how sad). So this year I definitely did not want to pass up another St. Patrick's day and the opportunity to star the traditions in our family.
On Wednesdays, Brian works with the All-City kids until 8:00 up north so he doesn't get home until 8:30-45ish which by then, Elijah is already in bed. I was really bummed on Saturday at Costco when I saw the corned beef and then remembered Quianna will be at her mom's house and Brian will be at All-City on the 17th. But then Brian had said, "How much do you want to start it as a tradition?" I started thinking... I had just hung up the phone with my mom who told me they were having their Chinese New Year party a month late, so why couldn't we have a St. Patrick's Day party a few days late? So I bought the corned beef.
The next day, I started researching St. Patrick's day and I found out some really cool stuff. Did you know that the first St. Patrick's Day parade was in the United States in 1762? The Irish soldiers serving in the English army marched through New York City.
Brian says that besides in big Irish populations in the United States, St Patrick's Day is just an excuse for American's to get drunk. But I learned the reason behind St. Patrick's Day. St. Patrick wasn't even Irish! He was originally from the Roman British Isles and was captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. In his 6 years of slavery he used religion as his solace, then he escaped and went back home. He became a priest and years later he had dreams that the people of Ireland were calling him back to bring them religion. So he studied and prepared himself and went back to Ireland. They say that he converted people in high political positions and so then masses of people followed suit. Therefore, St. Patrick was responsible for a Christianity in Ireland. Long explanation but to sum it up, St. Patrick's day is a religious holiday in Ireland and it wasn't until in the 1970s that the pubs were open, before everything was closed and everybody went to church.
So for our St. Patrick's Day party on Saturday I had everybody wear green. I looked for green necklaces, but since it was so long after the 17th, there wasn't very much at stores. BUT I did get a table cloth and cups for $3.50.
We had corned beef for dinner with corn and peas then for dessert we had mint oreo shakes. Between dinner and dessert we had a scavenger hunt that a leprechaun left for us. At the end he left us some of his pot of gold. It was lots of fun to see the kids figure out the clues. They loved it!