Match Attax Cards, Food, Feast Day, and St. Colmcille

T came home from school one day last week and asked me if I could buy him some Match Attax cards. What? He said they are like baseball cards but are soccer cards from the English Premier league. That actually sounded pretty neat.  I never knew soccer cards actually existed, but it makes sense. The next day while the children were all at school I went over to the local toy store to see if they sell them there. I picked up a few packs for him to start trading with the boys. 

The cards are even Topps - an American company

T was over the moon with his new cards when he got home from school

T is slowly learning all the teams and the players. He is enjoying this whole new soccer "football" world here. He loves trading cards with this friends at school and the neighbors outside. His goal is to have every player from Manchester United. 

Last weekend my cousin and cousin-in-law made a huge breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This was a huge all day event. They do this every year in October around the day my Aunt Kathleen died. She is my mother's oldest sister that died 5 years ago. All of my Aunt Kathleen's kids, grandkids, and great grandkids get together. They always include my mother in this and one of her other sisters. The food just keeps coming and coming. The women never left the table and the men never left the couch. In between meals there would be pots and pots of tea, biscuits, chocolate, and more tea. I have never seen so much food. I told the children this was their Thanksgiving meal since its not a holiday here. For dessert they made 7 thats right SEVEN desserts from scratch. We had white chocolate blueberry cheesecake, fruit trifle, almond tarte, madiera cake, carrot cake, chocolate cake, chocolate biscuit cake. It was amazing. The children had a great time playing with all the kids and we left with full stomachs!!

The dessert table

Saturday was L's feast day. We celebrate on October 19th - St. Laura of Cordoba. When we are at home we just make a special meal that they request but this year I let L choose where she wanted go eat. She choose McDonalds which is pronounced MACDonalds here. It had been raining all day so I figured it would be a good opportunity to get out of the house. 

L picked a fish stick happy meal. Yes, happy meals have fish sticks as an option in Ireland. Then for your side you can pick french fries "chips", fruit bag, or veggie bag and then they throw in a bag of raisins. 

After dinner we walked over to St. Colmcille's church in Swords for evening mass. We've been to this church many times as we used to stay in Swords when we came to visit. St. Colmcille brought Christianity to this area. He blessed the well of clear water giving the town its name, "Sord" meaning "clear" or "pure." The well is located on Well Road next to some of his old monastic ruins. I will have to find it one of these days! Outside of Ireland St. Colmcille is known as St. Columba. Columbia is the Latin version of the name Colum. He founded over sixty monasteries and churches in Ireland. He is considered one of Ireland's patron saints along with St. Patrick and St. Bridget. 

St. Colmcille's Church