Irish Thanksgiving- take two!

This Thanksgiving was my second one here in Ireland. I have to say, this year was definitely better than last year. Now that I have been through being so far away from home on this holiday before, its a lot easier.

I still had to work this year on Thanksgiving- thats the part that was the hardest for me. I would have loved to stay at home and watch the Macy's Day Parade and stay in my jammies (just like back home!) but unfortunately that isn't reality when living abroad. I was at work all day in meetings and I won't lie I did shed a tear or two when I talked to my parents back home. Eating cold sandwiches in a hotel bar just doesn't have the same appeal as a home cooked meal!

Thankfully my husbands family is really supportive and are always excited to have a Thanksgiving with me here in Ireland (even though they still don't get the reason behind the holiday despite my explanations....its just a cultural thing!)

This year was my first time hosting a Thanksgiving and cooking the turkey and the majority of the meal (Thank god my MIL is so awesome- she totally helped me with the meal and answered my frantic turkey phone calls during the morning haha!)

I thought the meal went really well- The cooking turned out really well despite me being under the weather (and by under the weather I mean hungover. I had a work function the night before and work functions here in Ireland means getting drunk with your work mates. de-gutting a turkey while hungover?? NOT FUN. I don't recommend this. There may have been a lot of whining and doing the "this is icky dance" while trying not to vomit down the turkey's neck.)

And of course- the biggest portion of any Irish gathering? Drinking. For me drinking on Thanksgiving ( or Christmas for that matter) is just not done- But my Irish relatives didn't even think twice about whether or not there was going to be a piss up- it goes hand in hand with any function! I was annoyed by this my first Thanksgiving- this time around I had a great time. (I would say I'm way more assimilated this year haha!)

Here are some of the pictures from my Irish Thanksgiving- round two.....


The meal- I was pretty proud of that turkey! Of course no thanksgiving would be complete without my mom's 7- layer salad! (and there is the obligatory cranberry jelly which NO ONE touched- two years running lol!)


The family getting in and settled around the table. We had the meal in my kitchen- It was pretty small and I realized that day that I only own 4 dishes (which is an issue for a meal for 10 people) and no serving spoons. DUH. Thank god for my MIL once again!

After the dinner the drinking commences........

And the drinking continues on....


And then the champagne comes out...
A little for you.....

A lot for me!

There was a lot of laughter and stories told

A lot of Pink Floyd played- with air drumming and guitar of course haha


A lot of strolls down memory lane- with accompanying maps to figure out who lived where in some estate back in the 60's...


And of course lots of family love! I had a fantastic Thanksgiving and feel very thankful to have married into a family as great as my husbands!

I hope everyone else had a fantastic thanksgiving and had lots of love and turkey!

Two Years

Two years ago these two friends decided to change their lives for the better....




Some people thought (and still think) that we were too young, that we lived too far apart, that we hadn't dated long enough. But we knew that despite all of their opinions or the facts at hand the decision we were making was a good one. Something that was worth sacrificing for, something worth changing our lives for.


Sunday was our two year anniversary- we are no longer newlyweds nor can claim to be! We don't have a lot of money right now so we kept everything low key. We dressed up and went out for a fancy dinner and had a few drinks afterwards...


A glass of wine with dinner- haha that's splashing out for us!

At our favorite pub- Nancy Blakes. They have a great outdoor area that usually has pretty good live music on weekend nights.

If you can't read the quote in the middle it says : "Knowing you will be with me in all my tomorrows, makes my today so wonderful."

My anniversary present from James....we had a limit of 15 euros for each other....I got him a DVD....he got creative and made this photo collection for me. Super sweet and put my dvd present to shame! haha

And finally here we are 5, nearly 6 years ago when we met for the first time....We look so young!

Its the little things

Random Internet tidbits that made me smile, laugh, put me in a good mood or whatever in the past couple of days...

I particularly enjoy what he wrote in the space for memos......

I hate math with a passion. But I love this. Using evil against evil. And if Verizon isn't evil I don't know what is.


We don't even have Thanksgiving in Ireland (what is the WE I'm saying....excuse me....THEY don't have thanksgiving....geez!) so I feel like the onslaught of Christmas happens even sooner over here!! They had some Christmas in the shops in September!! too soon, too soon. Can we all just agree on December 1st for decorations?? You can start shopping whenever you want, but at least for decorations sakes the 1st? I want to still enjoy the decorations by the time the day comes around, not be sick of looking at them!



And finally- the thing that made me laugh so hard James came downstairs to find out what in the world I was up to- this youtube video my friend Whitney posted. Seriously I'm not sure why these kids crying is so funny, but it just is. possibly because they aren't mine, and I am not stuck in the same house/room/store/bus/train/plane with them.

With the lack of sun and the short days sometimes its just the small things you need to get ya by.

10 on Tuesday....Today is a double header day!

Yes that's right I'm posting twice today. I don't get nearly enough time (or make enough time) to sit down and blog so when I get a chance I figure I should go all out!

1. Its freaking cold outside. Its not frost cold, but bitter cold. And that North Atlantic wind DOES NOT make it warmer. At least its not raining.....right now! lol

2. Halloween came and went. No trick or treaters of course. Decorations were scarce in the stores, the pumpkins small, but still it was Halloween! People got dressed up, went out drinking, went to parties. The big thing here for Halloween is bangers and fireworks. Bangers I think are just small mortar bombs of some sort- nothing flashy, just a large bang. But so many have been going off over the weekend it sounds like we are living in some sort of war zone. You can still here a leftover banger here and there all day today. And here is my pumpkin!!

Seriously- that is the LARGEST pumpkin I could find. Ridiculous tiny pumpkins.

3. November already?? wow- this year....flying by. Our two year anniversary is next Sunday. No clue what to do for it. I think we might treat ourselves to a nice dinner in town. We aren't very good at the whole romantic mushy stuff. I might even splash out and buy him a card....ooooo fancy!!

4. So what are the thoughts about the new Two and a Half men??

Personally?? Still sitting on the fence about it. I feel like the show is dragging along. But I also feel if they could make the story into something good. We are an episode behind here in Ireland so I'm waiting for this weeks.....until next week. Its 2011 why can't they just show the shows at the same time??!??
also......the singing in the beginning.....ashton is really creepy...right?

5. We finally hung most everything up in the new house today. We have lived here over a month now but I have been so slow in getting everything put away in the house. I also realized that I really really really need to frame pictures. lots of pictures. I have spent good money on professional pictures, really awesome prints and another random assorted images to put in frames and hang on walls. So now I just need to actually get off my butt and frame them. eventually.

6. I really need to watch the U.S. Office from the start- in order. James and I always talk about doing it, but never got around to it. I think we got so obsessed with 30 rock we didn't want to watch anything else for a while there haha

7. I am 98.9% sure that I will be going home for "Christmas" in January. WOOT! My sister who I havn't seen in nearly 3 years will be home and she and James have never met. Should be good times! (also hoping to hit some great january sales....need to stock up on some black flats, medication and other unnecssary stuff) I can't wait to drive on the right side of the road again! (I mean that in both senses)

8. I want to see Despicable Me. I nearly bought it in Tesco the other night. But I hadn't seen it yet. All sources say its cute but I need proof first. I bought finding neverland once without watching it first and learned my lesson.

9. I plan on taking Thanksgiving Day off from work this year. I want to sit at home and watch the Macy's Day Parade and eat turkey. TUUURRRKKKEEEYYYY. I'm hoping the Christmas turkeys are in by the time Thanksgiving rolls around since you can't find them otherwise. (SIGH)

10. I lovvveeeedddd that extra hour of sleep Saturday night. The really short evenings? Not loving those so much. Its dark by like 6 here. le sigh.

Check out Linny's 10 on Tuesday- This is where I'm stealing it from- she's awesome so give her some love!

The big Snip

Tomorrow Neko will be de-manned. or de-tomcatted.

Awh Poor Neko, has no clue what the morning holds in store for him.

This morning he was attacking my hand (his favorite activity) and as I pushed him back his tooth broke off! Blood and all. Neko didn't seem too fazed and while I wasn't too worried since he was acting fine I still called the vet. So while he is getting "the snip" I think he might have a little dental work as well. Lucky little cat.

Stretchy Kitty....also known as James torturing playing with Neko

He has been getting more and more aggressive and eating non-stop. I can just tell he is hormoned from here to Kansas and sooner than later he will start spraying.

I ABSOLUTELY refuse to have him spraying in my house! There is no way I would ever have a house pet and not get them fixed. Or really any pet unless I wanted to breed. (which there is no way I would want to! I'll leave that to the professionals.)

Please don't think I'm turning into one of those people who treat their pets like kids (not that there is anything wrong with that) But I do enjoy having neko around (when hes not BITING me!) I even got him a Christmas stocking....




Seriously how cute is that?? I couldn't resist myself...And we always had one for our dog when we were growing up. I figured why can't he have a little Christmas fun as well!

Well I know I've been pretty absent as of late. Starting a new job that is actual work isn't as easy and I want it to be! I've got plenty to share and can't wait to show you guys some of my pictures from training and Halloween! (and some pictures of Neko after his surgery!)

Put Me DOWN!!