Nollaig Shona Duit

Happy Christmas

A rollup of Christmas traditions here across the pond. The Irish people claim Christmas as their big holiday. They seem to think that thanksgiving is the big one in the U.S. We have explained there all big over there...

Food:
The one similarity to American thanksgiving is the meal. In ireland the Christmas dinner is similar big deal as Thanksgiving meal.
The typical meal is turkey and ham (boiled not baked), stuffing,  roast vegetables.
For dessert- mince pies, christmas cake, christmas pudding (note mince pies are everywhere, it is one of the signs of the season in grocery stores, coffee shops, etc...)
We found out the other day that it really is ham and turkey not an or. We were at a restaurant where both are served together. A slice of turkey on the bottom, covered by lump of stuffing with a slice of ham on top. Surprisingly good.

TV:
The season starts off with the late late toy show
Then the nation channels fill the season with movies...
From the english neighbours we have Christmas Day specials for Doctor Who (new doctor introduced on Christmas this year) to Downton Abbey.

Jumpers:
Sweaters to americans... It sounds like this is a new old tradition. Christmas jumpers are available in all the stores. We have the classy ones and the ones that are 3D with baubles hanging off. Mine has a scarf and a bauble nose.

Drinking:
In downtown dublin it is the 12 pubs of christmas. this is where everyone wear the aforementioned jumper and try and visit 12  pubs in one night. Drunken mayhem ensues...
Also tis the season for mulled wine.
Egg nog not so much. The only place you would see this is on the starbucks menu as an egg nog latte. otherwise not an Irish thing.

Pantos:
I have heard it is tradition to see a holiday Panto. From wikipedia  pantos are theater style that includes song, dance, slapstick, cross-dressing,jokes. Will let you know, we are set to see one on New Years eve.

Santa Claus:
Obviously his minions and stand ins are here also. The Irish affectionately call him Santy

thats all for now, will see if we learn any other new Irish customs in the coming week

Rob

Irishisms

Things we hear in ireland

Is that alright or are you alright?

       Usually from customer service - banks tellers , store workers,  etc.

       And if it is not alright what is the response...

Ye

       Yes old English for you , how are ye doing 

Me

       For my , I.e. Me bike , me hat , etc..

Hard luck
      used in sports, for a close goal

Well done
       self explanatory

Good lad
       good effort in sports

Off to the jacks

       going to the bathroom

Irish/American dictionary (for the common stuff)

• Rubbish     / trash
• Crisps       / potato chips
• Chips        / French fries
• Bacon       / Irish bacon is more like canadian bacon
• Bin            / trash can
• Lift            / to give a ride in the car or an elevator
• Ride           / this is a family blog people....
• pint             / same word, but just to be clear in ireland a pint is 20 oz or 500ml
• creche         / preschool or afterschool care
• post            / mail  (verb or noun, put it in the post, or post it)
• Craic          / good time or story 

A few more food notes

        bacon as mentioned above is not bacon

        ham and cheese sandwich (cheese is shredded cheese)

        scone, is not a starbucks scone  but quite delish

        coffee is often instant, if not instant it will be an americano

        beans, this typically means beans in tomato sauce, served at breakfast usually

thats all for now

Rob

Christmas traditions

Well we have been told that Christmas is the big holiday here . We are doing our best to uncover the Irish Christmas traditions .

The first one being the late late toy show.

Since atleast the 70s their late late show (think tonight show) has a Christmas special once a year . The host breaks out a special jumper and they have performances by kids, and kids demonstrating different toys .

The audience is all adults dressed in Christmas garb , jumpers , etc..

Crisps part 2

Well as the Facebook readers may know we ran across roast beefy in stout flavor and turkey and stuffing flavor at the store.

We were invited to an expat thanksgiving party yesterday so decided these would make a nice starter.

The roast beef does taste like roast beef actually quite tasty. The turkey and stuffing tastes like a salty stuffing .

Both were pretty good and the audience seem to be split on which was their favorite

Rob

Managing expectations or What Stays the Same

I was ruminating last night about why our life here in a foreign land feels much less foreign than I expected. It's the kids. 

When you are married with kids of a certain age range you do certain stuff. The same sort of stuff whether you live in Portland, Chicago or Maynooth. You work (in our case this is just Rob), you care for a house, you cook, clean up what you cooked, do laundry, shop and take kids to school and their activities. Here in Maynooth the activities are different, the stores we shop in are new and laundry is really different (see previous posts), but the effect is the same. Right now Rob and Jack are at a GAA challenge match (instead of soccer) and Audrey and I are at church choir practice. 

Sometimes I get really frustrated that we aren't out traveling every spare moment.  But that's not realistic. We are a family living in a series of communities- school, work, town and parish.  We could choose to spend all of our weekends traveling, but then we are not part of our community. And kids need community. We are trying to strike a balance. Taking advantage of our location and seeing the beauty all around us, and living in our new Irish home. So, we are seeing a bit less of Europe than I expected so far, but we are learning more about what it means to live in Ireland. On most days I would say its a fair trade. 

Crisps (aka potato chips )

The chips section at the grocery store is not like in the US.

The majority of potato chips are sold in individual bags . We attempted to buy a big bag for home snacking, but when we got home and opened the bag we ended up with a bunch of small bags. It turns out that the big bags are just bags of little bags

Flavor selection is also quite different .

Flavours above prawn flavor, chicken flavor , bacon flavor, pickled onion, cheese and onion , and tomato...The closest to 'regular ' is ready salted bit these are tough to find .

Balsamic vinegar and sea salt is a little more available .
The weirdness aside they do have good potatoes so if you buy the high end potato chips they can be quite good. Current favorite is a cheese and onion from Tipperary.

Rob