Painting the town Green

It's been a few years since we had a big party at the house and this year I felt my 'Irishness' needed a bit of a boost. So we invited a few friends around for a 'bit of craic' and a bowl of my Guinness Stew.

Well we had quite the mix of people, most of whom it turns out are fairly musical (that is if you count Spoons as a musical instrument!)

We had a split-level party this year with the Pool Room is full swing as well as the Kitchen party upstairs. The fire went out - sure it was too warm anyways but the craic was great, and nobody was in danger of dying from the Thirst (I think I'll send Jonathan to the bottle recyclers tomorrow as the number of empties will return a tidy chunk of change) or starving (I do make a great Guinness Stew!). And DJ - well, he was the centre of attention, hugging and hanging on to people's leg like a limpet, especially when they were trying to play Pool!

It never ceases to make me smile when I look around a room and see a Sea of Green, with only a few who don't have enough green in their wardrobes to wear it two days running . . . and I wondered why Doug's silk shamrock tie was so familiar - he 'borrowed' it from Dad's wardrobe. Nova Scotia is quite brown now the snow has melted so a Sea of Green even if it is indoors is a welcome sight indeed.

The highlight had to be the musical aspect of the evening . . . For openers we had a musical rendition by Louise and her Mum, accompanied by various folk on the Spoons. But then the 'hired' musicians took over. Danny & 'Darcy' were mighty craic, didn't need much encouragement either.We had singing and dancing and Seanchaí - Danny told a somewhat depressing and at times incomprehensible (he a Corkonian!) story with more of a moral than one of Aesop's fables. For some reason after that, people started to leave . . . . it was midnight - Cinderella time - no other reason!

So those that were left retired to the Pool room for the the Trans-Atlantic OBrien's Rules Liam Neeson Perpetual Pool Championship in the basement (apparently the score was 1-1 at the end of the night as the Irish rallied late in the second frame). There is talk of a rematch - check out the pics and guess won!

A great night altogether - my faith in humanity has been restored and I feel a little greener today than I have done for a while - and I am not talking about the after-effects of the wine/beer! It was wonderful to have you all - old friends & new and family too. May God Bless you all, may your glass be always full and may you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead ;)