12 Pubs of Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends and family both here in Ireland, back home in the States, and wherever else you might be in the world. I wanted to give you an update on what the holidays have been like here in Dublin and in the country (Naul).

But first, my boss Gavin bought a new puppy that he brings into work everyday. Meet Rufus, the new office dog. He's pretty damn cute, and making up for the fact that we lost Sophie this year at the grand old age of 14, whatever that is in doggie years. See the pic of her driving below. She had so many skills....

Rufus

Sophie

Little Rufi fell asleep on my Michael Kors bag one day at the office....

I wasn't even mad.

My office had a Christmas party and being the only girl, I, of course, was in charge of decorations, food, music, everything basically. I made Santa hat brownies, taco dip, sandwiches, and a Christmas tree cheeseboard. I got the ideas for all of this on pinterest.com, which I have seen a few people been getting into lately. There is some great recipes, party ideas, and other stuff on there. Be sure to check it out if you haven't. 

Last time you checked in with me I was headed off on a driven shoot with Eddie Whyte, Peadar's Dad. We went to this really cool old estate out in the Irish countryside, and apparently the house had been there for hundreds of years. Check it out below.

Basically how the shoot works is that there are 4 drives throughout the day, all at different sites. The pheasants are in the woods, and everyone involved in the shoot draws a number which correlates with their assigned position on the field. The shooters spread out to their positions (see the picture with all the men and their dogs) and "the beaters" chase the birds out of the bush/woods (hence the saying "beat around the bush").

My assignment was to help Eddie load the shotgun. This way he can keep his eye on the birds instead of having to fumble around with loading the shells. I was pretty good at this if I might say so myself!

Eddie locked and loaded.

The day we went, Dec. 19th, was one of the coldest days we've had in Ireland this winter, but I still got to wear a sweet outfit. Reversible camo hat, hunting jacket, beige skinny jeans and hunter boots!

The thing I love most about Christmastime in Ireland, is that it is a full week of celebrations and events, not just 2 days. Part of Peadar's present this year was custom t-shirts I had made. One says "Who left the fridge open?" because Peadar's always "giving out" (American translation: complaining) because I constantly open the fridge, browse around, then walk away leaving the door swinging. Another one was "GTL" since we love Jersey Shore so much, and another one is "I'd Rather be Farming" with the Farmville logo pig on it. Now that I think of it that would be a great t-shirt for my cousin Collin, who is a Farmville extraordinaire. 

Two years ago for Christmas (yes, that right 2 years, as in 2009) I got Peadar a Lego tractor for Christmas. I found it in his room this year, still completely unbuilt, and busted it out.  

Peadar and Ciaran started building it, but Ciaran got tired and fell asleep. Pad finished it though, despite many people who didn't think it could be done without his brother Ned's help. Apparently Ned is the Lego genius in the family. There's always one. My older brother Kyle was ours. 

My mistake, I think this is actually a Lego combine harvester, which is a totally different machine than a tractor, as Peadar will tell you. 

After Christmas Eve, and Christmas, is another holiday called "St. Steven's Day" aka: The Day After Christmas. I'm not sure what exactly that celebrates but I know it's another day off of work, which is grand. In between Christmas and New Year's, there is also an obligatory night where you do the "12 Pubs of Christmas" which is basically a pub crawl where you go have a drink at 12 different pubs, if you can make it. We joined at pub 3, and made it until the end. Although, we were hurting pretty bad the next day. 

Peadar and I brought funny hats to the pub crawl, me in my True Religion Eskimo number, and Peadar brought his "trilby" hat, which I also got him for Christmas this year. Pad's cousin Angela Wall is wearing the "trilby" in the pic above. Pretty badass. When Peadar first said "trilby" I thought it was supposed to be "Thrilby" and he just didn't pronounce the "th" because of his accent! Turns out I was wrong!

Christmas this year also involved a lot of sitting around and relaxing, as most holidays do. As I was strolling by the Whyte's living room. I snapped this pic of Finbar, Michael, Olive, and Eddie, all engaged with their cell phones or computer. Too funny! You can see Olive's baby bump in this picture. She was actually due New Year's eve, and is almost 2 weeks overdue at this point. She is basically ready to go at anytime, and mentally, she is really ready to get the baby going! She could basically be giving birth as I am writing this post, that's how ready she is.

Mary-O cooking away!

I even made deviled eggs and introduced them to Ireland.. Check em out in the spread below. 

St. Steven's Day dinner table. 

Peadar and Finbar rocking paper crowns, a tradition from this part of the world. You get them from "Christmas Crackers" which are not, as I found out, crackers that you eat on Christmas. They are basically like little fireworks that you pull apart and they have toys and crowns in them. 

On New Year's Eve we went to Peadar's sister Catherine's house for a party. See us looking sharp below!

Peadar's birthday is today, January 11th!  Happy Birthday Dude! As a treat I won't post any embarrassing pictures of you in my blog. What a present! Also, though, I got him a sweet flat screen which is a nice upgrade from the old TV we were using before. Now I can actually see the screen. 

Lastly, my good friend Rachel Taggart is headed to Brazil this Friday to do volunteer work for 4 months. Before she left though she found the time to send me some lovely xmas pressies for the home, including coasters, bottle openers, pictures, frames, etc. One of the things was a little stand that I wasn't quite sure what to use it for, but Peadar found the ultimate solution, an iPad holder! Thanks Rach!

Lot's of love to you all and have a happy, healthy, New Year!!

XOXO

Amanda

A Few Cheeky Pints

Before I went back to Chicago for Thanksgiving, I had my first visitors (outside of my family) come stay with me here in Dubs! My college roommate Jenna Vickers (pictured below with her Mom, Jan, on the farm) and my childhood friend Preeti, who came the week after (pictured below with me on the Hogwarts Express, aka: The DART).

I was trying to think of good entertaining stories to share with you from their visits here, and the first one that came to mind was when Jenna, Jan and I were taking a DART from Dublin back to Malahide and encountered a serious character in our car, what they call  "a knacker" in Ireland. I'll let Urban Dictionary define that one for you. She kept calling Jenna a "cheeky bitch".

This was pretty funny until she copped on that I was filming her. Had to put the camera down pretty quickly. 

When Preeti was here we went to a bar called Porterhouse in Temple Bar. They had really delicious gluten-free beer called Daura by Estrella. 

On another night Preeti and I got all dolled up and went to the Eircom Spiders awards, which is a big event I had to go to for work, held at the Convention Center in Dublin (see picture of cylindrical building below).

We were snapping pics with the augmented reality app that went along with the event. Check out the picture of the Golden Spider above. 

Last month, I also went on a business trip to London, to an event called the Social Gaming Summit. The event was actually in the Chelsea Football Club, which would be cool for some people, however I actually hate soccer aka: football.

Needless to say the event didn't have anything to do with the sport, so I didn't mind. See a picture of me below at our company booth. At the last minute, the organizers actually invited me to speak on a panel called "Measuring the Health of Your Virtual Economy," which was nerve-wracking but exciting.

In other news, my old pup Sophie kicked the bucket. It was really sad because we had her for 14 years, and she was a really good dog in general. Sophie was a Carin Terrier, like Toto from the Wizard of Oz. 

I found the Judy Garland pic after I took the other one with Sophie, I swear. In her last few weeks she got very tired and slow, but I got one last picture of her out in the front yard, keeping the watch. A classic Sophie moment.

Below is a picture of Peadar and his dog, Brandy. They say people can look like their dogs, and I think in this case it might be true. Divas.

With less than 2 weeks till Christmas, it's amazing to think that I have lived in Dublin almost 7 months now. This is a picture of Peadar and I last year on Christmas, at the Launch holiday party in the Q Room at 565 W Quincy. We had no idea that a year later, I would be working and living in Dublin with him. 

This is a picture of our 1st Christmas tree together in Ireland, at our apartment. There were a few arguments over how big of a tree we could get, but in the end we decided on this one. Look's great, don't you think? I brought over a few keepsake ornaments from back home in Chicago, to keep the connection. My Grandma Keating gives every grand-kid an ornament every year since we were born.  It's a great tradition, and now I have loads of memories from my childhood on my tree. Try to find Clara, from the Nutcracker, hanging towards the top. The best ornament she ever got though was for my little brother Greg, and it was a SportsCenter ornament. Click here to see a picture of it, although a picture doesn't do it justice, since it also plays the theme song as well. 

My blog wouldn't be my blog if I didn't post some funny pics of Peadar on here for general entertainment. I brought back a bunch of winter clothes from Chicago my last trip, and as we were unpacking them, Peadar started modeling them.

I guess he was born to be a model though, he's been doing it ever since he was little. Check out that little gem of a picture I unearthed. Pad's in the middle below! (With brother Brian on his left, and sister Olive on his right). 

On Saturday, I participated in a charity "Polar Plunge" for Special Olympics Ireland. I only found out about on Thursday at swim practice, but I signed up to be a volunteer for them awhile ago and wanted to participate. Between Pad and I we were able to raise about 500 Euro in one day! I think it was about 30 degrees Fahrenheit when I jumped in the water... and who knows how cold the actual water temp was!

Check out the video here:

Afterwards I had my towels, slippers and robe ready to lash on. 

Then I changed into even warmer gear. We had brought a hot water bottle, which I stuffed into my sweatshirt pocket for added warmth. That, and an Irish coffee afterwards sorted me right out!

Later on Saturday, I was doing some serious Christmas shopping around Malahide, and couldn't carry everything. So I just wheeled the cart from my last store up straight into the apartment. Genius, right? 

On Sunday, Catherine and Louise Whyte hosted a baby shower for Olive, Peadar's sister, who is due on New Year's Eve. A "Mum to Be Afternoon Tea" it was called, so cute! Except the funny thing was that we couldn't bring gifts for the baby, only for Olive, because in Ireland people are superstitious and consider it bad luck to buy anything before the baby is born, in case something happens. I mean absolutely nothing. They don't buy diapers, assemble the crib, accept baby clothes as gifts, or anything like that. I find it to be the kind of crazy, considering after the kid arrives who would want to be running around having to get all that stuff?! The father has to, I guess! The Irish obviously wouldn't be down for the show "Pregnant in Heels". Catherine and Louise put together a gorgeous day, complete with games and treats, and they totally surprised Olive.  

Picture above: Olive in the moment of surprise. 

This Monday, Peadar, Catherine, Brenden & Hagen (cousins) and Hagen's girlfriend Lisa and I all went to the theater. And by theater, I mean we went to go see Trailer Park Boys live show at the Olympia. Catherine and Lisa had never seen the TV series before though, and I don't think they were too impressed with the live show. It was pretty crude, but I thought it was funny. 

Before the show we ate dinner at the Millstone, which had an extensive GF menu and had the Duara GF beer. 

This Friday, I am going on my first pheasant hunt with Eddie (Peadar's Dad, see picture above. Yes, that really is a pheasant emblem on his sweater). I can't wait. I even bought an outfit so I look like Kate Middleton when I go, which I will put pictures up of next week so you can see. 

The other day after work a colleague of mine asked if we wanted to go for a "few cheeky ones" referring to going out for a drink or two. I thought that was the best Irish phrase I have heard so far.

Lots of X's and O's,

Amanda