Canadians and Their Holidays

(Disclaimer:  this post is written by an American who has lived in Canada for 13 years and has established official Landed Immigrant status in this country.  All perspectives portrayed are due to the fact that the author has divided loyalties between Canada and the United States and, due to the country of origin and the influence gained from those first thirty-two years of life, the comments made cannot help but have the slant that they do.)

Canadians love their holidays!  There's pretty much one holiday per month, preferably on a Monday, and if there isn't really an offical one like Christmas or Thanksgiving or Canada Day, why then, there is one that's created just for the fun of it, it seems.  August has no official reason to celebrate, but we have August 1st as "Civic Holiday".  What's that mean?  It just means that we need a day off in August. 

February doesn't really have a holiday either because you can't count on Valentine's Day to have a day off of work or school.  No problem.  Several years ago, Family Day was created and now we have yet another Monday off. 

Family Day is supposed to be a day where families spend time together doing family things.  For some people, that means cleaning out their basements together or sleeping in and maybe vacuuming out the family van.  To others, it means going on a weekend skiing trip or attending a local museum's free Family Day activities. 

This year, Family Day for us meant spending the day participating in a free Family Day skate at an ice rink with some friends and then going to their house for a wonderful visit the remainder of the day.  What fun!  While the dads worked on computers and the kids played outside in the snow fort and Monopoly Jr. inside , the moms sat and laughed together and cooked together and visited like only two moms with little kids can do - interrupted, disrupted, and non-stop!

Fred and Levi sharing some fun playtime together.



Lots of happy, noisy and goofy children!

 We let the kids eat first so that we could enjoy a quiet meal together with just the grown ups.  They loved the "privacy" of eating without parental supervision, as you can tell.

Watching Roadrunner videos

 When they were done, the kids all gathered around the laptop in the other room to watch Roadrunner videos while we had our quiet dinner in the dining room, next door.

 We weren't so quiet, I guess, because all of a sudden, some little munchkin came over and shut the door to the dining room because we were being too loud and they couldn't hear their show!  That, of course, made us parents laugh even louder and harder! 

While I still think it's funny that there had to be a day designated for families so that we could have another holiday with a day off, I sure am thankful for it!  We had a lot of fun with the Boronka family and the laughs we shared were welcomed and binding for our families.  The day was over far too soon and we left with wonderful memories.  What a great Family Day, February 2012 (or June 2003 - depending on what calendar you use, right Irina?)