The Irish Homecoming - There’s no place like home for the Christmas holidays - food laughter, love and being spoilt by Santa

April Drew and her family enjoy their first Christmas while settling back into Ireland

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

3 Comments

Colum and Sadie get into the Christmas spirit.

Tweet

It was the first Christmas back in Ireland for APRIL DREW and her family, filled with food, laughter, love and too many toys from Santa.

Happy New Year to all my dear friends in New York. I trust 2013 has been good to you all so far. 

I’m not sure about you guys, but nearly everyone I know in Ireland was hit by a vicious strain of the flu that elbowed its way into the Christmas celebrations of families across the country. And of course we were no exception. 

Naturally we all live to tell the tale, but it took a lot out of us. John, my husband of three years, spent a large part of Christmas Day in bed in my mother’s house, my son Colum, two, coughed up a storm for nearly three days and survived on very little sleep, and our little daughter Sadie, 10 months, is still not over a cough. Yours truly thought I had escaped the nasty visitor, but that was just wishful thinking. 

About seven o’clock on New Year’s Eve it hit me like a ton of bricks, and after just about managing to stay upright to ring in 2013 I took to the bed and didn’t surface until this past weekend. I’m glad to say it’s behind me now and I’m on the mend, but it looks like John is in for round two. 

But let’s not let something small like a flu dampen our spirits. This was our second Christmas in Ireland in 10 years and our first as a family. It was beyond special. 

While living in New York for nine years we had many fun and memorable Christmases – dinner in Rory Dolan’s, kisses under the mistletoe at the Rambling House, skiing in Vermont, New Year’s Eve celebrations in Manhattan and the latter few years (after becoming parents) celebrations at our friends’ homes -- but you can’t beat Christmas on Irish soil.  

When we got married in Co. Kerry in December 2009 we stayed on to celebrate Christmas with our families and we had a fantastic time. We ate too much, drank too much, slept in way too late many mornings after nights out, and we visited everyone we possibly could over the holidays. 

Christmas 2012 was a very different kind of celebration, and I think it’s fair to say one of the best we’ve ever put down. 

Anyone who has kids or is around children for Christmas knows it brings a certain excitement to a home.  Even if the kids aren’t all that familiar with Santa and his goodies there is still a wonderful buzz about the place. 

This was Sadie’s first Christmas, and aside from wearing many pretty dresses every day over the holidays she just went with the flow and wondered every now and then where all these toys were coming from. 

Colum, on the other hand, is a lot more aware of the tradition of Christmas. We went to Mass more, he ate chocolate more, he stayed up late a lot, he watched E.T. a billion times and literally overnight his modest playroom became a top of the range kid gym with a slide, tent, ball pool -- the list goes on. 

Print

E-mail

Tweet