Getting Ready for Thanksgiving in Ireland
Hey, a year ago today, on the eve of Thanksgiving, I wrote about America and Turkeys.
It was written from an Irish perspective of course, so it was mean-spirited and condescending.
However, actually being in Ireland for this Thanksgiving has made me realise that I really feel, well, exactly the same and that’s why I’m linking to my Americans Eating Turkey piece again while I go out and buy some traditional Irish-spiced fish fingers and instant roast potatoes.
Other Holidays To Get Ready For:
• Valentine’s Day
• New Year’s Eve
• Fathers’ Day
• Mothers Day
• Christmas Eve
• Easter Sunday
• Halloween
• MLK Day
• Fourth of July
• Columbus Day
• Christmas
• The Twelfth
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Hey, Eolaí,
Hope the fish fingers and insty-roasties were to your liking. We planned a big Thanksgiving this year, with ten adults, five small children, and two ten-pound turkeys.
On Tuesday night, my parents regretfully said that they just couldn’t make it, what with my mom recuperating and needing to take it easy. No problem, we assured them, we understood completely. On Wednesday we checked with my brother to make sure 12:30 would be early enough, since he’d have to get back home and go to work that evening. Yes, that would be grand, and they’d bring the four youngest with them. The friends from across town set their daughter’s nap early so they’d be on time to dine.
We baked, and chopped, and roasted and mashed and brought the microwave, the crock pot, and the toaster oven into service. We childproofed (hid the toothpaste and toothbrushes, too) and tidied, and about noon the phone rang. My poor brother, sounding very apologetic, said that they could not make it after all, since two of the kids had gotten sick (in that dramatic but not life-threatening way that small children can do). I tried to make him feel better, let him know that it really was not a problem, and I actually did mean that.
So we dismantled the second table we’d laid at the end of the first, answered the ringing doorbell, and had dinner as six adults and one really well-behaved not-quite-two year old. We ate until we looked like the Brueghel painting about the land of milk and honey, and nobody balked at taking home leftovers of even more turkey. Actually, I was so pleased with how they turned out I found myself thinking about how soon I could decently cook another turkey…
All the best,
stwidgie
stwidgie, this is such a fabulous comment - easily comment of the week in my non-existent ongoing comment of the week competition.
Thank you very much
Just as we Americans have not necessarily seen the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls (we have), Grand Canyon, Yosemite, the Rockies, Smoky Mtns., etc., I’m wondering if you’ve not yet seen the Ring of Kerry, particularly on bicycle? I would love to think you have done so.
Carol,
I’ve seen the Ring many times. I’ve even stayed in a house directly on the road. Indeed for some time I’ve been planning a long post about just that holiday.
I haven’t actually cycled on it but I have done a lot of walking there, over mountains, along coastal paths, and over 20 miles on the road itself.
A cycle round there is an ambition, but for now maybe I should write that post - it’s a long one.
And as for the other major sights in Ireland? I have stayed in all 32 counties, but there are 3 major sights I have yet to see. I’ll give you a prize if you name them.
To me, everything in Ireland is a major sight, and it is prize enough to know that you did not miss out on the Ring. I’m so happy for you, and for all who get to be there whenever they can arrange it.
There near the statue of the Lady (of the mountain? Killarney?) who is surrounded by stones, looking down the hillside to the sea and out to the skelligs, with the sun shooting down through a small hole it has burned through a heavy cloud, so that it melts across the water like golden lava..oh, that is my lifetime’s favorite visual. I can’t imagine anything in this life topping it. Not at all, not ever. As the Kerryman with us said of the ancient and astoundingly beautiful silence there, it is “God-breathed.” Ahmen.
If you’ve posted on the Ring since I last looked in, please direct me to it.
Thank you, anyway — what would’ve been the prize? And what are the 3 sights you’ve yet to see?
Oh yes, it is a rather magnificent corner of the world all right.
The prize would have been a painting. And since nobody won it, well it would have been a large painting.
Maybe I should turn the sights I haven’t seen into a post? I already have a few negative lists planned.