The Luck of...Us

I was going to call this post "The Luck of the Irish," but the reality is that I am not the slightest bit Irish--even on St. Patrick's Day.  So, I guess that just makes me lucky.  One lucky Mama.  Married to one lucky Irishman.  With three Chinese kids.

Our lucky charms. They're magically delicious.  
So delicious that I want to bite their little faces.  And I do.

Today we had our annual St. Patrick's Day fun.  The fun includes making corned beef and cabbage, something that the one Irish-American person in our house does not prefer.  Still, I insist on honoring his heritage with a huge slab of beef, homemade soda bread, and a Guinness.  Everyone dresses up in green, except for me, as I do not think I own anything green except for a Celtics t-shirt buried somewhere with my summer clothes.  The girls and I bake green cupcakes and we do some holiday arts and crafts projects.  All of this Irish fun comes one day after the girls and I made homemade meatballs and gravy, and two days after I carefully folded some Chinese dumplings.  This is just another thing that I love about our multicultural family.  Had we all not collided like the five luckiest galaxies ever, I really doubt any of us would be having half the fun or varied experiences that we do now.

So much green.

Although we all love sharing food and stories and outfits celebrating each other's culture, I have to admit, I don't always get it right.  Yesterday at Market Basket, Emmie noticed some decorations depicting a rainbow and a pot of gold at the end.  Being the ever-curious brainiac she is, she asked me why there was a pot of gold there, and what it had to do with St. Patrick's day.  I sort of bluffed my way through some 1,000 ft overview of the rainbow and the pot of gold, which of course she did not accept and only resulted in more questions about Irish lore.  Finally, I said, "Emmie, I'm not sure of the exact origin of that story.  I'll have to find out.  You know, I'm not Irish."  To which she responded, "Well, I am!!"  Like a happy leprechaun, I grinned from ear to ear.

I know that this will likely change as the girls get older, but I love how right now they feel they are a little bit of everything we are.  They are so proud of being Chinese, but they are also patriotic little Americans with an Irish and Italian background.  Watching all that they have embraced makes me think a lot about the many ways in which grown-ups could learn a few lessons from little kids.

We attempted this selfie SANS kids about 6 times before we gave up.
Look at Emmie wrestling her way into the photo.  They can't stay away!!!

A perfect match.
(Notice the Shaoxing cooking wine in the background, too.)

So, "Top O' the Mornin' to ya!"  Or, "Ni Hao!"  Or, how about "Ciao!"  Maybe I should just stick with "Hello."  Either way, I hope you found whatever you were looking for at the end of the rainbow.  I sure did.