St. Patty's

It was at some point in my late childhood that I realized that most people don’t really actually celebrate St. Patrick’s day. I remember having a conversation with some of my friends about leprechaun traps and seeing the confused looks on their faces.

“Leprechaun traps?!?” 

“Yeah…you guys don’t do that?”

Every year on the day before St. Patrick’s Day, my siblings and I would carefully build our own leprechaun traps in the hopes that this would be the year we’d finally catch one or two of the little rascals. We’d build trap doors and such out of all kinds of random things found around the house and embellish with all the shimmery gold items we could find (moms jewelry, gold buttons, watches, etc.) to lure them in.

These aren't our traps but...an example of what one might have looked
like. For those of you who haven't ever attempted to catch on of those
tricky little devils. 

We’d wake up to find a trail of shimmery clover confetti and Chocolate gold coins forming a pathway from our doors. We’d follow the trail to find a treasure at the end-Lucky Charms cereal and perhaps another treat or two! Then, we’d race to check our traps.

We never did catch one but we could tell that the leprechauns had been tempted by the gold because the traps would be messed up. Somehow the lucky little guys always found a way out. Once, my brother Beau got so close that there was a fancy gold button caught in the trap torn from one of the leprechaun’s coats. We knew it had come from his coat because there was still a bit of dark green thread in the button hole. Sometimes they’d leave us little notes “He he, you can’t catch me!” or “Almost got me that time!”

Of course we had been careful to wear green the night before so that the leprechauns wouldn’t be able to pinch us while we slept but, in the morning we did our best to paint ourselves in green from head to toe! I’d tie green ribbon in my hair, paint my nails green, and wear green eye shadow.

Often my dad would bring home green bagels in the morning after his paper route to go with our breakfast of lucky charms.

As you can see-St. Patrick’s Day was nearly as exciting as Christmas for us kids! One of my friends asked “Are you Irish or something?” “No, we’re just really big on holidays at our house.”

That’s an understatement. My mom made every holiday so special for us! I love all the fun memories I have of our holiday traditions-the excitement my siblings and I would experience the days and even weeks before a holiday as we anticipated the fun. We had so much fun creating those leprechaun traps together and every St. Patrick’s Day morning we were so sure that this would be the year we’d trick those little men and get our pot of gold! What fun!

I so look forward to making holidays special for Emma and other future kiddos. I am so excited to watch them experience the magic and tradition.

Of course, this year, Emma is too little to build her own leprechaun trap or to care about a pathway of shimmery green clovers and chocolate gold coins but, she still got a special green St. Patrick’s day breakfast (Which she HATED...as you will see in the pictures below.) and dressed in a cute green outfit.

Not sure yet...

"This is AWFUL!"

Silently sulking...

And, while I didn’t build my own trap this year, the leprechauns still left me and Sam (who says he thinks I’m crazy but secretly loves it) some lucky charms and a treat. I forced him into a green shirt and I painted myself from head to toe, just like I always have.