"The holly green, the ivy green, the prettiest picture you've ever seen"- J. Redmond, J. Cavanaugh & F. Weldon

Those are, of course, some lyrics to "Christmas in Killarney", a song I feel I have always known. That song certainly leaves you with a magical feeling about Killarney and there is a reason for that! What a weekend we had!

Miss Mary & John, our dear friends from New York, are vacationing there for the month, so we hopped on the train and went out to see them. We all loved the train- it was so easy, and our seats were facing each other, two seats on each side with a table in the middle. Our names were even electronically displayed above the seats reserving them for us. As we passed through the Irish countryside, we saw cows, sheep, horses, farms and lots and lots of green! The boys were looking for elephants, but we didn't see any of those.

Miss Mary arranged for us to take a "jaunting car" (that's a horse and buggy) around the park which was so beautiful. We stopped at Ross Castle and saw the Lakes Killarney and even spotted some deer. The boys loved it, and so did we.

The first night that we were there, Miss Mary asked her niece to take Tom and I up to the Gap of Dunloe which is one of the big sights to see in Killarney. Unfortunately, we did not make it all the way up. Tom's motion sickness demanded that we abandon the curvy roads. It's OK, we will be back. If Tom is the driver he will be ready to go, and we can bring the boys too!

It was a perfect mix of visiting friends, seeing the beauty of Killarney and toddler fun. The key to our travels will be balancing the things that Tom and I want to do with the things that the boys need to do. I think we got it right this time.

While we were there, I also finished "Secret Scripture" by Sebastian Barry. A truly excellent book. I just started a book called "Every Dark Hour" by Niamh O'Sullivan. It's about the history of Kilmainham Jail in Dublin. I have not visited yet, but this book should make it even more interesting!