Feasting

The Traditional Irish Kennedy Christmas Dinner:

Begins with sharing Christmas Crackers,

Turkey, Ham, Brussel Sprouts, Parsnips (My absolute favorite dish!), Potatoes, Peas,

and Bread to clean your plate.

Followed by homemade deserts:

Christmas Pudding (a.k.a. Pan Dulce, Fruite Cake, The thing no one ever eats)

Chocolate Meringue, Trifle (a decadent creamy cake like combo), and chocolates

Topped off with:

Cup of coffee or tea, a chat around the table while your incredibly stuffed belly has a chance to realize what just happened, and a minute for your brain to relax before the annual family quiz.

Typically, the teams are as such: The Clare family which consists of Oige's mum, her brother and his four children VS the Kennedy family who is Oige, Oige's dad, and his sisters (one of which was unable to make it back from Fiji this year. Making us all jealous when she skyped to show the incredible view of white sand beaches with crystal clear water outside of her workplace). Guests are filtered in where necessary, but this year things were a bit different. For starters, Stephen, Emma's partner decided that he would be the quiz master. As a seasoned pub quiz patron, I can say that he did a fantastic job, especially having to accommodate both American and European intelligence. In honor of the American presence, Oige and I had our own American Corner Team with which we were able to recruit his 3 year old nephew Noah. Yes, we did have to revert to our youngest member on several occasions: What was given by my sweet love on the 6th day of Christmas? and Which two of Santa's reindeer begin with

the letter C? He turned out to be a very useful teammate! And the third challenging group was Oige's Dad, Mum, and sister Emma. Result? The Kennedys won, the Clares got second and the American Corner dead last. To our credit however, we weren't too far behind in points and to be fair we were playing with 2.5 players...