I’m part Irish and I always make a corned beef and cabbage dinner for St. Patrick’s Day. That’s it. Oh, and I usually wear green and so do the kids. Last year though, I heard about other moms who pretended a leprechaun had visited. They messed up the house (leprechauns are mischievous, you know), turned the kids’ milk green, offered green bagels for breakfast and put gold wrapped chocolate coins in the kids’ shoes. So, not to be out done, I just had to do the same. A classic case of keeping up with the Joneses, or should I say, the O’Joneses.
Fast forward one year and here I am totally regretting this new tradition. March 16th used to be a day like any other. Instead, it’s now the day I realize I’ve created this new “tradition”, and at the last minute have to race from the bagel shop (they were out of green bagels by the way, but they open at 6am, so guess who’s getting up early), to the market for the food coloring, and the local chocolatier for the coins.
I thought that maybe I’d just do the bagels, or just turn the milk green – then I thought again. This is a brand new tradition. Their memory of it is clear. It’s not like the other traditions that are many years old, that are all one big mashed up memory, in which they can’t tell year from year. I have to do it all. The alternative is to admit that there is no such thing as a leprechaun. And you all know what that leads to…
So this year I added a new tradition, a stop at the package store for some good old fashioned Bailey’s Irish Cream. If I have to keep up with the O’Joneses, I may as well make sure there’s something in it for me.
confessions of a minivan mom 