Irish Jig

Tonight we had our annual gathering at Ye-Ye and Nana's house, where everyone wore green and had a great time - which you can probably tell just by looking above.

The day started out with us making some shamrock cookies. You can see Madison here adding the sprinkles, and using some serious self-control not eating them. Afterwards, Madison and Daddy did some chores out on the town: we went to visit our friends at the printers, drop by the church for a check, get ink for the computer, and even drop by the bank. Rather mundane chores, really - but Madison did get a green lollipop from the bank, which made it all worth it.

Meanwhile, Mommy was preparing for the evening as well. She had the corned beef going, but also spent a lot of time putting together this classic, and amazing dessert:

Those are not real potatoes. I kid you not! What you are looking at are brownies, wrapped in marzipan, rolled in cocoa, and finally with small almond slivers in them for potato eyes. The end result is something that looks just like a potato. Years ago, Mommy started making this amazing creation for St. Patrick's Day. Now it's nearly a requirement that we have them: they're very delicious, although uber-sweet.

Tonight's event has the usual games, the most important being the potato toss. Madison did very well for her category, as you can see here. The object is to throw potatoes into the black pot, and she's doing well from a good distance away. Grown-ups had a further challenge, and all was tied until the sudden death round, where Nana blew everyone away nailing 5 out of 6! The other big game was something like pin the tail on the donkey. Get a photo of last year's result here.

This year's results were similar. I believe Ye-Ye came away with the victory, although everyone had a great time trying.

We had a marvelous meal today, celebrating Madison's Irish heritage! There was plenty of corned beef and cabbage, of course. Also Irish soda bread, and potatoes. Aunt Shain made a marvelous cake with a shamrock on top of it, and everyone also munched on Madison's cookies - and Mommy's potatoes. We watched a few Irish-themed movies tonight, but didn't make it a long night because of school tomorrow.

It was certainly a fun time. Madison loved it, and loved threatening to pinch Ye-Ye for not wearing enough green!

"Maybe it's bred in the bone, but the sound of pipes is a little bit of heaven to some of us."

- Nancy O'Keefe