Happy St. David's Day!!!

Today is March 1 and it happens to be St. David's Day.
No, I am not Welsh. And I am not Catholic.
So how, you ask, did I come to know and celebrate St. David's Day?!?!

Well, many, many years ago, I lived in a small mining town in Central PA. It was a unique experience for me. I have always found other cultures fascinating and this town was filled with many cultures. I did not spend the best years of my life here, but I did come to love kielbasa, pirogies, fastnachts, gyros, Polka, and St. David's Day.

You see, in this town there happened to be Catholic churches of every variety. I learned to polka at weddings that were half Protestant and half Catholic unions. My father asked me once if I wanted to go and I said yes. I quickly learned that these mixed faith weddings were the best. I was known to ask where the reception was being held. If it was in a Catholic social hall, I begged to go. It was great fun and the food was fabulous!! That was where I learned how to love REAL kielbasa and how to polka. Before lent, the German Catholics made Fastnachts for Shrove Tuesday. We still celebrate Fastnacht day in our home.

In this same town was a Welsh Congregational church. Every Spring on March 1, they held their St. David's celebration. It was always amazing!! The Welsh are known for their singing and I don't think a single soul from that church was a bad singer. We spent the evening listening to them sing. At the end, they would have the congregation sing. It was always fun to try to sing Welsh. Afterwards, we would go downstairs and have cakes and tea. That was the highlight of our night. There were always daffodils on the tables. Everyone was always so nice to us and they talked to us for hours. I had so many fond memories of those yearly visits!! In addition, I knew a lady who hailed from Wales. She was so very kind to me.

So after I watched "How Green is my Valley," all of those wonderful memories came back to me. I decided to share some of them with my children. I have always been known for celebrating things that people had never heard of before, so this is not too strange. Also, I share a tradition of having tea with my children. I am not always faithful to do it, but the goal is once a week. It is a fun time to just talk or read poetry or simply relax. I have a honest to goodness recipe for Welsh Cakes that the ladies from the Welsh church gave to my mother. My family had never had them before. So, Hannah made them for us, and we had delicious Darjeeling tea. I wanted Welsh breakfast tea, but it was not to be found last minute. Isaac couldn't have the cookies, so he had a bar. I printed games and coloring pages for the Skibums. I shared with them the story of St. David, the Patron saint of Wales. I showed them the flag and other pictures. The loved coloring the daffodils and leeks and dragons. Obviously, Simon that he should be coloring the Polish flag with a dragon on it. Not quite, buddy!!

Here is Isaac's firt try at real china. He did wonderfully!! He doesn't drink tea since we had a bad episode with tea once. Instead he has chocolate soy milk which is a treat for him.

I bought sugar cubes for this special occasion. The kids loved putting them in their tea. Isaac wanted one, too. So I gave him one for a treat. He thought that they were just fabulous!!



We had a fun time altogether.
We even had the blessing of dad being with us.

Oh, and you will notice that they are sitting on the floor. We always have tea in the Library and there are not enough seats for everyone. Besides, our tea is not an exercise in being fancy or proper, but in enjoying each other's company. So, the floor it is for some of the Skibums!

Iz eating his sugar cube.
I can't believe I gave him straight sugar to eat!!