Happy St. Patrick's Day

I don't think I am Irish. Maybe there is some tiny little fraction of Irish in my blood, but I am just not sure. Either way, St. Patrick's Day is here and can be a fun holiday to celebrate...if you like green beer and ham and cabbage soup, which I do.
Last year was a very uneventful St. Patrick's Day because I was pregnant. No green beer for me. The year before that wasn't bad....Michael and I had been married within the previous few weeks....I think we went to a bar close to our house and had a green beer or two a piece. Definitely nothing crazy.
If you want to talk crazy St. Patrick's Days I will have to go back several years....to my college days. I went to GA Southern for college...just a short drive away from Savannah. And Savannah just happens to have the best St. Patrick's Day parties around. They used to dye the river green...no idea why that stopped but it was probably because some 'save the planet' type of people deemed it to be bad for the environment or something like that.
Anyway. My freshman year of college, my Dad happened to have a meeting on the weekend before St. Patty's Day....and it was held at the Hyatt right on River St. We had to have wristbands to get in and out of the hotel....there was some serious partying going on right outside our windows! My Dad took me out in it a bit, but because I had finals coming up I was NOT supposed to go back a few days later for actual St. Patricks Day. Um, yeah, ok. I actually did resist until about dinnertime that night and then decided we HAD to be there! The awesome thing was that I still had on that hotel bracelet....this was key so that I didn't have to pee in a nasty porta-potty and could use the hotel bathroom as much as I needed to.
Fast forward a couple years to when I was a junior. My best friend, Tracey, was in town visiting me and we had all intentions of hitting River St for the best St. Patty's Day party ever. We ended up with a group of my guy friends and literally walked from one end of the party and back to the other end, drinking and having a blast, all night long. There was some drama in the group when one of the guys spontaneously kissed me and one of the other guys was furious about it....we sang along to the loud music that was being played from the stores (Chumbawumba?! Ha!)....the street was jam packed with thousands of people...I am sure we used plenty of the porta-potties and didn't even care....and I think we saw some guys trying to steal a car as we were walking back to our own car. It was definitely the most fun I have had on a St. Patricks Day.
The following year was different. Not as fun. River St tried to make it more controlled, the cups for beer were a lot smaller (and it wasn't green, just the cups were), the street not as packed with people. I haven't been back since.
I think this St. Patrick's Day will be much more laid back and casual....maybe I will put a green bib on Sophia and maybe I will make some cookies and use a little green food coloring in the mix or make them in the shape of a shamrock. Maybe Michael and I will have a green beer after Sophia goes to bed. I have had enough of the crazy celebrations for this holiday and now it's time for the more family oriented version. But I still like to think about the memories of St. Patty's Day's past!!! :-)