Burns Night with the Herd

If you know me, you know that I'm in love with my Scottish heritage and all things relating to Scotland.... And I'm raising my kids to embrace their heritages as well (My Scots and the High Roller's Lebanese roots). When I realized that the Burns Night Who is Robert Burns, anyways? I was originally supposed to attend with my local St. Andrew's group was a DRY affair.... No Whisky at a Burns Night or any Scottish celebration is sacrilege in my opinion... I decided to make my own Burns Night at home... It was an opportunity to teach the Herd something and have fun... And celebrate Robert Burns properly (with drams of Scotch).

 The first order of business was to obtain a Haggis. As some may not know, TRUE haggis is illegal in America, because sheep lungs are considered to be not meant for human consumption by the FDA... But there are a few companies in the USA that sell "approved" haggis. However, I wasn't willing to pay the $50 of combined shipping and retail price for it to arrive on time at my home, so I decided to improvise. I scoured Pinterest for recipes, and finally found an easy, organ-free recipe that could be cooked in the crockpot... Much like a meatloaf. And I had everything at home that I needed to make it! So I used ground deer and lamb, along with an egg, various spices and oats... The Princess helped me prepare it :) Want the Recipe?!

She even mashed it up with her little hands and helped me from it into a loaf, so that we could slice it theatrically at supper. I also baked Gluten free Shortbread (it's delicious but a complete pain to make) for our dessert and mashed tatties for our side dish. (Potatoes)

The Kids all colored Scotland themed coloring sheets that I had printed out for them while I briefly told them about Robert Burns and why we celebrate his life and work.

Butch Cassidy and the Princess wore their various articles of tartan...

Sundance was in one of his prickly moods and didn't want to dress up. I don't push that kind of thing. LLL wore a balmoral cap for awhile but decided she didn't want it after all. Thanks to one of my favorite college professors, Dr. Bob Evans, I used a video of a cartoon reading Burns' Address to a Haggis for the kids to watch... And it was designed so that you could turn the character into a picture of a real person...  Tried to make it into a picture of Butch Cassidy but it wouldn't cooperate. So we just watched it plain :) First we said the Selkirk Grace, then ate. Supper was enjoyed by ALL....

A very small amount of the "haggis" was left... And LLL demanded to eat its leftovers yesterday.... Nothing cuter than a two year old saying "aaaaggggeeeese".

I drank my Jura Single Malt and read "A Red, Red Rose" aloud (my favorite Burns poem).

We listened to the Chieftains Long Black Veil Album and traditional pipes music. We had a great time, and I'm so glad I did this.... Even though I feel ridiculous for a lot of my crazy ideas, sometimes. Hopefully they will all have fun memories from these nights.Who is Robert Burns?