For the past ten years, we have been hosting a St. Patrick's Day celebration, with more corned beef, shepherd's pie, and soda bread than you can imagine. There is meat boiling in vast pots for hours, 15+ pounds of potatoes to be peeled, cooked and mashed, and U2 music blasting all the while.
This year, my small house was overflowing with friends, family, and neighbors (most of them gathered in the kitchen of course), and I'm sure you could hear the revelry blocks away. After the guests arrive and the eating frenzy is over (for the moment), the kids parade through the living room, dining room, and kitchen to the sounds of bagpipes ("too noisy," according to my daughter).
We are big on parties in my home: Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, The Summer Party, Tuesday, Cookies and Milk, to name a few. Party planning is a science for us, each festivity with its own ritual and menu. With a small house and hardly any spare time to spare, I often get asked (and I often ask myself), "Why?"
Why? Because whatever the holiday or celebration, I want our house to have these main ingredients:
1. Family - the house will always be big enough for one more guest
2. Food - there will always be enough food to go around even if we have nothing left
3. Fun - there will always be laughter, music, joy, hard work, games, and presents
This is what I hope our family and friends take away with them when the night is over, and what my daughter remembers when she has a home of her own.
100,000 welcomes!