Mid-week shopping (SOL19 #15)

I hurried as I put each item on the conveyor belt. I don’t normally shop on a weeknight, but the big day is creeping up and I needed to get prepared. I lifted the cold packages out of the cart watching to see if the cashier gave me the look. She did, but it was accompanied by, “Wow! I want to come to your St. Patrick’s Day party.” 

“It’s going to be pretty epic. We’ll see you at two!” My Irish eyes were indeed smiling.  

15 pounds of corned beef

5 HUGE heads of cabbage

Big ol’ bag of carrots.

Fixings for my famous Dilly Corned Beef Dip

 a plethora of green, shamrock filled plates and napkins. 

This Irish lass is SO excited.

They're ALL coming... (SOL16 #11)

Each year my husband and I host a St. Patrick's Day dinner for all of our family members. I love hosting this holiday because I am proud to share my Irish heritage, and am quite excellent at making corned beef and cabbage. 

As we planned for this year it seemed as though the guest list kept growing. Between new members being married into our family and new children, the amount of people invited was starting to look higher than I thought it would be. 

I sat with Phil and sent out the invites on Facebook. By the end of the process the guest list was up to twenty-two people. We hit "send" and waited for the RSVPs to come in. Surely everyone wouldn't be able to come. Maybe people had plans.

One by one....

"Yes."

Yes."

Yes."

Yes." 

"Of course. What can we bring?"

"I'm coming with the husband and kids." 

And so on. 

Twenty-two people in my tiny house. 

More importantly... enough corned beef and cabbage for twenty-two people in my tiny house...

What did I get myself into?

Leap Day (SOL #1)

Ahh Leap Day. That strange phenomenon that comes around once every four years adding one more day to our calendar. I used to not care much about Leap Day at all. It didn't really matter that there was one more day added in February. Some people say that you should make the extra day count by doing something significant to celebrate having one extra day to accomplish something great. I never really took their advice.

I started to care a little more about Leap Days when I met my husband, Phil. He was born on February 29th on a Leap Year. It was amazing to me that he didn't have an actual birth date each year. How did he celebrate birthdays? When did he celebrate? Did it bother him that he didn't always have his own special day each year? The whole idea of it fascinated me.

Unfortunately for me, as excited as I was about knowing someone personally who was born on Leap Day, was as unimpressed as he was for being born on such a unique day. He had heard all the questions before and was frankly tired of answering them. He celebrated birthdays the same way everyone else did, he could pick whatever day he wanted to celebrate, and no it didn't bother him because he didn't care. Lame responses. 

Once we started dating and got married I was determined to change all of that. I wanted to make those birthdays that he actually got to celebrate on his day (February 29th) count. Thus Phil Suomi's amazing blow out birthday parties came to be. We celebrate his birthday each year, but on Leap Year, we go all out.

This year was his eighth birthday party. We celebrated with all the things that eight year olds would love. It was Ninja Turtle themed (his favorite when he was really 8) complete with games and an adorably decorated cake. It was epic. 

Now, we wait another four years for another amazing Leap Day Birthday celebration!