The fiance and I have been hosting St. Patty’s Day gatherings for several years. Unfortunately the year of the move in (and move again, and move again) was a break in the annual festivities, but we’ve gotten back on track.

I mislabeled this year as our ‘third’ annual gathering but it was actually our fourth. Wish the fiance had brought that to my attention before I sent out all the invites. Oh well–next year when I change it to ‘fifth,’ we will see if anyone notices.

I’ve loved hosting our friends and family for St. Patty’s. It’s a great time because it’s just a come and go as you please format. Our friends often stop by early so they can grab some food, say hello and then head to their partying destination. Our families come and set up shop for the duration of the event, catching up at sort of a mini family reunion.

I think there’s a little something for everyone, although I was sad we didn’t make it to the entertainment portion of our evening this year. I think everyone’s flame burnt out a wee bit early this time around.

Partly due to the weather, in my opinion. We were absolutely spoiled last year with near record high temps. Everyone was outside on our patio drinking and eating, the kids were running around the year, everyone enjoyed the sun and company just a little bit longer and we ended up having a great sleep over and Ulster Fry breakfasts in the morning.

This year we had snow and the threat of more snow, so it seemed like the visits were earlier and the party was tapering off by 8 p.m. I guess when you start at 1 p.m. there is a chance that’s going to happen–I had been enjoying Irish coffees for a while at that point, and I was still waning. Or maybe I’m just getting old. Geesh.

We had a slightly mixed bag line up of foods. I tried to be more traditional last year, but unfortunately I think the effort was lost on most people. (I just can’t get anyone on board with black pudding.) We were also taking into account how busy we were going to be leading up to the party, and thought simplifying and letting others chip in was a better route. Our menu ended up something like this:

• Corned beef and cabbage
• Potatoes and carrots
• Roasted Brussels sprouts
• Baked parsnips
• Chunky applesauce
• Irish cheese board
• Irish soda farls and jam

We also had a variety of desserts and spirits, and Brian made homemade bangers and Irish sausage for the dinner round. I was planning on champ, but it wasn’t warranted so I made it later in the week for us to enjoy with the leftover sausage.

Based on RSVPs and who I remember seeing, we were at 30-35 people, which was a fun crowd. I think if the weather had been better we might have seen even a few more.

Next year we’re pushing back the start time to see how that goes. We might have better luck gathering around the fire with the guitars and song books if we can keep the energy levels high longer into the night.

I did stop to think about what we’ve done in the past and what we would do in the future–my online invites seem to fail in reaching many of our possible guests so printed invites might be implemented moving forward–and it dawned on me that next year I would be hosting under a different name.

We are about to officially hit the six month countdown mark, and I’m starting to get even more nervous and excited. There have been dreams (read: nightmares), there have been heart palpitations, there have been even more items crossed off the wedding planning checklist.

All of these next months events will be ‘my last time as a single lady’– Easter, Independence Day, my birthday (heading into the last year of my 20s, yikes!)– and as soon as those wrap up, I think we’ll fly through the shower and bachelorette party and straight to the wedding.

Straight to the first day of the rest of my life with my best friend, love of my life and favorite human being of all time.

So this was my last St. Patty’s as a single lady.

And that’s fine by me.