Leprachauns, Clovers, and Gold... Oh My!

Exhausted and covered in bruises is how I awoke this morning. What an incredible St. Patrick's Day celebration we had yesterday! Before your mind starts to wonder... let me explain. The bruises are from the massive amounts of pinching.... given and received. Now let me clarify that I was dressed in green from head to toe.... even with green bows on my shoes. It is a holiday and I am a Switzer ( my maiden name ...not a curse word in a different language) and we celebrate like no other. That being said, I'm always torn on this holiday because I love the attention of getting pinched but I have to dress appropriately as it is in my upbringing. Which brings me to my exhaustion which is from running from person to person asking to be pinched because I was not COMPLETELY green... my face and hands were showing and right now they are half red (remember my post from last week on the sunburn) and half pale.



Let me also clarify the pinches.... a "St. Patrick's Day pinch" is much different than a "Christmas pinch". I HATE Christmas pinches. St. Patrick's Day pinches are full of mischief and shenanigans. The Christmas ones are down right painful and mean. Someone in my family made them up and if I knew who... I would not give them a gift this year. The bad part is that it states in the "Switzer rule book" that you can Christmas pinch someone at any time of the year. I've even gotten one in church before... from a lady sitting behind me that heard about it and wanted to join in on the fun. Good luck to you if you ever attend a family function with me... just because "Christmas" is in the title... it does not mean it is nice and enjoyable.



Now that I have explained the different pinches... we can move on.....



So, I waited all day to pinch Kev as I just knew he would not have a speck of green on him - #1 because his favorite color is brown ??? and #2 because secretly he likes to be pinched as much as me. Little did I know that he is so awesome ( well, I did know that) and that he wanted to do something extra special for our celebration.... because when I walked in the front door, he was waiting for me dressed as a Leprechaun!!! Here is a pic of my sweet husband....







Now I know why he had been growing a beard for the last month..... my Mom was right... Kev does have red hair. He hand stitched this costume from some green felt and white paint. I had no idea he was so talented with the costuming. He is officially hired to dress my family for our next event! The pic is a little blurry because he was dancing "The River Dance" and singing about "Finding me Lucky Charms". It also looks as if he has a removable arm.... maybe the huge pot of gold that he had separated his arm from his socket. Oh well... he didn't seem to be in any pain..... so we continued with the celebration....

I was hoping to have a REAL Leprechaun attend our party... but couldn't seem to catch one. I read somewhere that they liked shiny things, trinkets, and mixed nuts... so, I built a cage and placed all of those things in it. When I got home from work... much to my surprise and disappointment - Kev was in the cage! Apparently, I had replicated a pawn shop. He had eaten the nuts and had priced all of the trinkets. I now owe him interest.

I also did some research on what food Irish people eat. Now, I am part Eskimo/part Hillbilly - I know it's an odd mix but you can't fight love - but you might want to if you are an Eskimo or Hillbilly and have met me and don't want your children to be like me. Kev is Norwegian. IF we ate what our ancestors ate then we would be eating herring, beets, raw fish fresh from the ice, whale blubber, bologna, and spam. DISGUSTING! I was hoping that we would have some luck with Irish food. I hope that I am not offending anyone... but cabbage, Reuben sandwiches, and green beer is not very appetizing. So, then I googled Leprechaun food ( I really did... and it REALLY came up with a list of stuff) and that consisted of twigs, potato peelings, brussel sprouts and fatty bacon ( very similar to a hillbilly). Anyway, after a week of agonizing menu planning... we finally came up with the following..... grilled Reuben sandwiches ( with roast beef - no sauerkraut), fried potato peelings (chips), and cabbage (in the form of cole slaw). The point of this story is that it is more important to celebrate a holiday the best way you can than to ignore it because you don't like the food. Which is always my motto on "pretend liver and onions are delicious day". I eat a Chic-Fil-A sandwich while sitting next to the trash.... that way I have the disgusting smell with a good taste in my mouth.

Here is a pic of our food....

And our dessert..... I thought long and hard about this one. Basically it just came down to me making something easy and green. I layered pistachio pudding (very interesting taste... weird but "somewhat" enjoyable - kind of like the Sci Fi channel... except for that would have to be "not very" enjoyable) and cool whip. I topped it with mini marshmallows. That was the best part of the whole dessert. I had forgotten how much I enjoy marshmallows.... and by "ENJOY", I mean "They make me so happy when I pop them in my mouth that it gives me obnoxious giggles". I'm sure that Kev would agree with that last statement - except he didn't giggle - he just stared at me in disbelief and forced me to take my Ritalin. Kev's exact words about the dessert... "It was interesting, different, and Leprechaunish". I'm sure Paula Deen hears that exact review of her food when she serves it... so, it made me feel special.

All in all it was a great holiday.... except for the fact that Kev's red beard is still attached.... craft glue is not as easy to get off as you might think. I hope you all had a great St. Patrick's Day! The next holiday coming up is Easter.... I wonder if I will be able to think of anything fun to do for that... I'm thinking someone might be dressed in a bunny suit...

Well, I'm off to Disney World..... where all dreams come true! Expect lots of pics and stories next week!