Last year at this time, I was visiting with my sisters in Ireland. The one who lives in Dublin decided to host an American Thanksgiving dinner for her Irish friends. It turned out to be no easy task!

Kristen & Maureen Gill, hostesses extraordinaires!

For one, my sister had to special-order a turkey from the butcher, since they are not commonly eaten in Ireland until around Christmastime. My other sister from Chicago brought over 2 cans of pumpkin, which were badly damaged in transit. Next up, we could not find any round pie tins! Turns out we had to make 2 square pumpkin pies instead of one round one. To make our mother’s/grandmother’s homemade stuffing, we went late-night grocery shopping and cleared the shelves of white loaves of bread. I think they thought we were crazy buying 8 loaves of bread, and nothing else!

Check out these decorations that my mom sent over. I think she must have had these left over from the 70s! Gotta love the accordion turkey and pilgrim (with evil shadow on wall). Ha!

The evening turned out to be great! There was no great dining table upon which to eat, but everyone got a full plate of American-sized portions, and washed it all down with some good Irish whiskey. It was a great “first” Thanksgiving for a lot of people…and I’m so thankful that I had the opportunity to share in this experience.

May all of you have wonderful thanksgivings, wherever in the world you are celebrating. And, if I learned anything from my Irish experience, it’s that a post-dinner whiskey with friends is sometimes all you really need.

Adventure on,

Kristen

As they say, all good things come to an end. The end of my travels this year brought me to my hometown of Chicago, where I spent Christmas with my family and old friends. I got to sleep in the same room I grew up in (where I spent countless hours of my youth listening to music and dreaming about travel while being grounded), and was surrounded by the entire Gill Clan, which was nice, as we are only all together once a year nowadays. I celebrated the holidays with both of my 94-year old grandparents, went to the German Christmas Market in Daley Plaza, met grade-school friends for a pint at my local Irish pub, and enjoyed all the lovely cuisine Chicago has to offer, including Lou Malnotti’s deep dish pizza, All Beef Vienna hot dogs, Garrett’s popcorn, etc.  I also watched the Bears pull off a win over the Packers! All in all, a great time.

So, as this year comes to a close and the circle closes, I hope your good memories of 2009 carry forward, and that you have a spectacular new year.

Thank you for reading the “Catchin’ Up With Kristen”  blog during 2009, for your comments and inspiration, and your encouraging kind words. I look forward to catchin’ up in 2010!

Adventure on!

Kristen

I took this picture of trees in NYC’s Central Park, turned them into black & white, and then added an orange filter for a spooky effect. I’ve always been fascinated by trees, and I think that scene from The Wizard of Oz, where they come to life is pretty scary!

Then, I . . . oh my gosh . . .  what the heck?

Aaaaaaaaaaaah! It’s a GHOST!

OK, enough of the tricks. Now, on to the treats!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Kristen