Archives for February 2014

My family loves to put together fun dinners for each holiday! We plan out the menu, decorate with a bit of whimsy, and sometimes invite friends over to join in the celebration.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money or time on your festive meal. Dollar Tree and Target’s Dollar Spot are great places to pick up table scatter or confetti, paper plates & napkins, and some festive decor like garlands and streamers.

We hang swirly cutouts from our chandelier

I will use St.Patrick’s Day to give you an idea of what one of our seasonal dinners looks like. Green is the name of the game! It is a minor holiday to some, but Hubby and I lived in Dublin for a year before we got married and we make a big deal out of it.

Here are some ideas to create a festive atmosphere:

• Make a Leprechaun Trap
• Cover the table with a shamrock tablecloth
• Grow some Shamrocks (best to start by the end of February)
• Turn a green plastic derby hat upside down and use it for a bread basket
• Glue together some Paper Shamrocks for a centerpiece
• Do some St. Patrick’s Day Mad Libs
• Wear green (of course!)

We have the same meal every year: Beef in Guinness, Cabbage and Bacon, Boiled Potatoes, and Irish Brown Bread. After dinner, we have tea with imported biscuits (cookies) and sweets (candy) that we buy in the British foods section at the grocery store. We eat these while having a rousing sing-along with our High Kings DVD.

To start off your St.Patrick’s Day dinner tradition, I would love to give one of you this beautiful Irish Shamrock Table Runner.

To enter, just click on that giveaway button below and fill in your name and email. There are additional options if you would like more chances to win. The giveaway is open to US residents only and ends 2/23/14.

Along with other members of the Inspired Bloggers Network, I want to encourage your family to eat together and make dinner fun! Be sure to enter the Inspired Family Dinners Giveaway for a chance to win an $800 All-Clad Cookbook Set and a $5 Dinners Cookbook Basket.