Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love March 17th!  Some people have no idea why this is so special, but it is St. Patrick's Day!  My maiden name is Henry and of course I am Irish from my dad's side.  We are very proud of our heritage.  I even have a three leave clover tattoo.  Every year my mother makes Irish soda bread, corn beef and cabbage with red potatoes.  Last year was my first year away from home being married, so I had to make my own.  I had my corn beef in the crock pot and it turned off while I was at work.  I was so sad, Sean was a good sport and ended up eating with me at 8 pm with tough corn beef, when it is literally supposed to melt because it is so tender.  He even let us watch Far and Away with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, a classic.  This year, at 7 am I had the corn beef in the crock pot and hope it will turn out!  I am all decked out in green, and getting a little made fun of at work because people either forgot about today or did not care.  Regardless, I am still having a blast!  I have to share a really funny story when Sean and I were dating and he came to visit my family for his first real St. Patrick's Day dinner.  I knew we had to pull a prank on him before he really was apart of our family.  So I talked with  my family and they were all in on it.  This is what happened:

My mom was preparing dinner and my sister and I were setting the table.  Once the table was set and all the food was on it, we took the chairs one by one and moved them into the living room so all that was left was a table with food and the plates, but no chairs.  Sean was looking at me weird, but I said this is tradition, please do not make fun of us.  I was trying so hard not to laugh.  Then my dad went back to the bedroom and got his Ireland flag and tied it around his head like a cape.  If this is not funny yet, just wait.  Then he took an Irish plaque from the wall and read it aloud to the whole family: mom, ashley, stefano, sean, and myself.  Afterward we all took hands around the table and started to walk clockwise around the table.  Then we let dad decide earlier what to say as a chant together, little did we know he would say something totally crazy.  He started to chant: "Weeeeeeeeee the little people" so as we were all holding hands we chanted 'wweeeeeeee the little people' over and over again until we went around the table a couple times.  We were all laughing so hard, we were crying.  Sean was really relieved to know this was a joke and not tradition.  The rest of the night, we would find my dad in another room yelling: "Weeeeeeeee the little people" and to this day it still brings a smile to my face.

There is never a dull moment with my family and I am so thankful for that.  I cannot wait to be in Seattle next year helping my mom prepare our St. Patrick's Day feast!

Happy St. Patricks Day everyone! 

-Hayley