St. Patrick’s Day Festivities

Yikes -- it’s been a while. If I’m not careful, I will get fired from my esteemed post as blog compositeur. Consider this post my way of gaining steam back into the usual pattern of positing thoughts and activities from our lives!

This year’s Siamsa na nGael concert, held at Symphony Center and featuring the continued artistry of the Old St. Patrick’s music ministry and the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra, included some inspiring additional talents. The evening was narrated by Brian Dennehy who brought his passion for the arts and Irish Catholic background to the stage. The gifted Soul Children of Chicago choir brought their precision and inciting music as well. The collaborative artistry of the evening was truly remarkable.

 

Siamsa certainly assists in getting us in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. It culminated at the end of that week with the traditional festivities in our city and our church. Aimee and I attended the “Civic Celebration” of the Feast of St. Patrick, seated among many dignitaries from the Chicago area and beyond. These include Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and his two little girls, Senator Dick Durbin, the PM of Ireland, the Grand Marshall of the Parade, and the Parade Queen and her court.  Some more are noted in the program below!

 

 
Katie was with us this weekend as well. Kind of. She was mostly with Stu and we tagged along. They enjoyed a very nice experience of St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago. It was a fine introduction to the people-teemed streets, full of young and old, fondly recollecting their years in the Greek system.   We had a really nice time visiting with friends, drinking Guinness and walking A LOT.

 

Our friends Michael and Joanna departed for their first trip to Europe shortly after their visit with family here in Chicago to celebrate Joanna’s fine accomplishment:  graduation from U of C business school!  Miles unfortunately could not make the trip to Paris so he stayed with his for part of their time away.  Despite our love, he was missing his mommy and daddy pretty badly.

 

Closing out the St. Patrick’s Day festivities was the Shamrock Shuffle. Aimee and I ran in this, our second instance of the light-hearted annual race. I’m pretty happy to tell that we beat our previous time and goal for the race. We finished the 8k in under 50 minutes for 9m 50s miles.
 
That’s it for now!  More to come including a recap of Easter and Holy Week!  Oh yeah, this also happened: