My Favorite Holiday

My favorite holiday is coming... and it's not Christmas.

Let me describe it for you.

Imagine your most anticipated holiday, complete with childlike anticipation, hoping it will come soon, and imagining what surprises it may hold!

Now add balloons... and presents... and bouquets of flowers... and family gathered together to celebrate, knowing that you'll tell stories of each of these individual holidays for years to come. There are no unpleasant aspects, because other people have done all the work and paid for everything, and you've been given the best event responsibilities, like relaxing and getting everyone psyched up. It's extra exciting because this holiday has no set date and no set frequency. It does not always happen every year. Sometimes the calendar gets marked with the exact day months in advance, and sometimes the holiday is not announced until the day of the celebration. Imagine going to bed every night, feeling like a kid on Christmas Eve, hoping you will wake up to someone telling you that it's the holiday, so that you can call your job and tell them you aren't coming today, or tomorrow, or maybe even the next day. Every celebration must be savored as if it were the very last holiday of its kind, because this holiday will not last forever, there are a limited number of celebrations, and you may not know that you've celebrated it for the last time until many years later.

I have celebrated my favorite holiday twelve times,... and it's been almost three years since the last celebration. Perhaps you will understand why I have zero Christmas spirit when I tell you this...

My favorite holiday will occur TWICE in the next few months.

Aunt Day, late-January 2016, courtesy of Patrick and Tanya.

Aunt Day, mid-March 2016, courtesy of Eileen and Stephen. 

Thanks also to past hosts of Aunt Day, Becky and Mark, Tina and Scott, as well as others who have made my favorite holiday possible, Carol and Dave, Anne and JB.