Irish Blessings

An Irish blessing: "May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rain fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand."

I love St. Patrick's Day. I've never been to Chicago to see the river dyed green, or had a green beer. (Strike that beer comment...I had my first green beer today!) The most I have ever really celebrated the holiday was going out on spring break, but then it was just like any other spring break day except we all wore green, like the picture below.
But for some reason, I just feel a peculiar sense of pride on the holiday. I guess it's my Irish heritage. (Or maybe I'm just a huge sucker for themes, celebrations and festivities.)

So that no one can argue my Irish roots, here is proof:

These are my aunts and uncles (minus Bobby, who wasn't born yet). My dad, aka "Grubby," is the cutie in the middle holding his baby sister. (I know you all wondered where I got my good looks. There's your answer!) Five of the nine siblings are redheads. They were all raised Catholic. They are all named after saints. And family names were also used quite a bit. Don't believe me? I'm the 5th female with my first name (that I know of). And that doesn't include my aunt by marriage who also shares our (Irish) luck.

Here are 3 of us ...all with the same first name (probably drinking our Bailey's Irish Creme)...and we're actually missing the 4th, Grandma, in this picture. So there were technically 4 of us at this Christmas party with the same name. (Obviously the aunt by marriage on the left is a teacher, if you didn't guess by the festive sweater vest). You'd think it would get confusing, but we all go by a different nickname!

I love my big Irish family, though. And all that comes with it. I can't speak for my cousin's little boy...he inherited that red hair. We'll see how he feels about it when he's older!

Another treat: Did you know that St. Patrick's name wasn't actually Patrick? Or that he wasn't actually Irish? Nor did he drive snakes out of Ireland. For 10 things you didn't know about St. Patrick's Day, courtesy of Time, click here.

Off to bed! Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to catch up on the 100+ unread items in my Google Reader...