"Alfred, dear, manners." Ireland smacked the boy's hand away from the food, "We wait for everyone to get here, and then we begin."
"But Auntiiieeee, I'm hungryyy." Alfred slumped onto the table staring at his food.
"Alfred J Jones, you are 400 years old. You are not a toddler." Nagged Ireland, "Why, when I was your age we didn't know when our next meal would be but we still waited for everyone to get here."
"Where is everyoooone?" America whined despite being scolded by his aunt.
"That is actually a good question… The stew will get cold soon…" Ireland paused for a minute, thinking of what next to do. She took a deep breath in and "GET YOUR ARSES IN 'ERE! THE STEW IS GETTIN' COLD AND YOU ALL KNOW DAMN WELL I WON'T HEAT IT UP FOR YA!"
Alfred shot up, and watched everyone trickling in, grumbling about the stuff they were doing and how there was now a massive herd of sheep that lost control in the living room. He reached for the spoon to eat when his aunt slapped his hand again.
"We have to say grace, Alfred." Ireland hissed at him. "Everyone hold hands we're saying grace."
"No offense Ireland, but I'm not reaching over a chair to hold Wales's hand." England crossed his arms in defiance.
"Iggy, Canada is right next to you. If you weren't so dense you would've noticed him." Wales perked up before Canada could say anything.
The family all held hands and said grace whether or not they believed in Christianity because fighting Ireland about it just wasn't worth it. As they dug in, they slowly began to remember that you don't eat the soda bread. France was the first to fall.
"You call this bread? I eat better bread from England's bakery!" France started cursing in French before pulling a baguette out of his pocket.
"Oi South, 'ow do you eat this crap? It tastes worse than England's bread!" Scotland pulled out a lump of meat from his bag and gnawed on that instead.
"I hate to agree with those chumps but… they're right. Except for the rude remarks about my cooking!" England pulled out some crumpets to nibble on. Wales and Scotland didn't say anything, but Canada had a plate of pancakes prepared and Wales had some leeks instead.
"Honestly dude," America said through a hamburger he was devouring, "How can you eat this?"
Both Irelands looked up from their already cleaned plates confused.
"It's food." They both said at the same time staring down everyone. They hadn't been picky about what they eat since the Great Famine that began North's life.