Another Three Dollar and one cent article.

This is a non-exclusive article that I was paid 3.01 upfront for.

Here is a direct link to the article

http://voices.yahoo.com/st-patricks-day-day-family-240216.html?cat=25

This is a holiday article mostly.

                               "St. Patrick's Day: A Day for Family"

You may not be Irish but even if your not you may find yourself celebrating this holiday.

You may know that this is a holiday commonly celebrated by the Irish. Perhaps you even know one of the main meals that will be served.

Corn beef brisket cooked with cabbage, new potatoes, celery, carrots and onions. All cooked together in the crock pot generally all day, until time for supper.

At least that is the way we have always done it. And I am a direct descendant from Ireland.

As you may have figured by now I am Irish at least a little bit, I am a third generation immigrate to this country. My great grandparents being born in Ireland coming here due to the violence over there between the Catholics and the Protestants I am told.

Anyway, you may be just wanting a little information on St. Patricks Day not someone's family history.

Well lets see, first off as you probably know St. Patrick was not really Irish but he was captured and made to be a slave for a while before he escaped.

At some point after his escape he converted to Christianity. After this he felt led to go back to Ireland to tell the people there about Christianity. He is credited with being one of the major reasons if not the biggest reason that Ireland went from being a pagan country to a catholic country.

Today, people that celebrate St. Patrick Day do not really think much about the beginnings of this holiday.


People are more interested in the celebrations of the day. In some areas there are even parade's that are held. New York and Boston having two of the largest St.Patrick's Day parade's.

For our family St. Patrick's day is a very big day.

Because that Christmas and Easter and even Valentines Day have become so commercialized these holidays are more stressful than happy occasions, so instead of celebrating these holidays we celebrate St. Patricks day.

We make a green cake with green icing and decorate it with shamrocks (the cake really looks nice when done). Then we make what we call Irish hot chocolate for the kids. This is hot chocolate with cool whip sprinkled with green sprinkles. And we put this in mugs this is part of the dessert part of the meal.

We also make the traditional dinner I grew up eating on St. Patrick's Day. (We did eat this other days too, but it was especially made for St. Patrick's Day).

We did not eat the cabbage and bacon dinner that some people mention, we had that at other times that was a fairly regular meal.

St. Patricks day was the day that we ate corn beef brisket and new potatoes, carrots, celery and onions all cooked together. Sometimes we would even make some cornbread to go with it but usually not.

Anyway, since our family decided to make this a special holiday for our children our kids look forward to this day all year.

Each year we try to add something different.

One year we had a candle light dinner with the candles placed in a bowl of water, with green glass rocks on the bottom of the bowls.

This was really neat the kids loved it. And it was even romantic.

And we listened to some Irish music as we were eating dinner. We even bought some musical cds that has several songs song in Gaelic. This was really nice I thought.

For us St. Patricks day has become not just a special holiday to celebrate. But it has also been a day for me to share with my children stories I have been told about my family who immigrated to this country.

While you may not be Irish and may be just looking for information on this holiday, this can be a special day for you and your family.

A day to make memories, or you can look at it as just another holiday to celebrate.

But we choose to make this a day to have fun. And a day to tell our children something about their family history.

We have many pleasant memories, it is also a day that is many times less stressful than Christmas or other holidays because this day is not as commercialized.

St. Patricks Day may not be a day that you had thought of as a special family holiday. But this can become your new family holiday, and a day less stressful because it is not advertised as heavily as Christmas.

Christmas is advertised and promoted so much that by the time it finally gets here it is not as nice as it could be. It is more like a let down.

While any holiday may become stressful especially if overly promoted which is what has happened to many holidays.

You can pick any day of the year for your own special family holiday.

You may pick St. Patricks day because it is an easy day to remember especially if you live near where the St, Patrick's Day parade will come thru.

Or you can pick another day that holds some special memories for your family.

This article was not really about St. Patricks Day it was more about finding time to spend with your family.

For my family St. Patrick's Day is a good day because I can also tell my children about their Irish roots.

For our family this has become a special day, and if for some reason we have to celebrate St. Patrick's Day late my children notice because they have come to look forward to this day, even more than Christmas because this is our special family day.

Every year we add something new to what we do, one year it was the floating candles for a candlelight dinner, another year it was tiny green cups filled with candy. This year it will be something else.

This year we have a trip planned so this will be another good year for a family celebration of our Irish roots.

I hope you have been encouraged to find your own special day to celebrate with your family. Pick a day that you can remember and decide to make this particular day your special family day.

Everyone needs a day set aside to spend with their family so they can build happy memories together. The day you pick for your own family holiday will be a day your children will come to cherish especially if you make sure this is a happy day.

St.Patrick's Day may not be the day you pick to be your family holiday, but it can be the day you decide to pick a family holiday.