One Year Later

Can you believe it has been a year? Boy that was fast. Although we are a bit sad to see it go, it is time for the tree to come down. Will we miss it? Certainly. (However, we will not miss being mocked by our so-called "friends.") But it is time for us to get our living room back. So goodbye Holiday Tree and thank you for the simple joy you brought to our life in 2011.

Christmas

Holiday: Christmas
Date: December 25, 2011
History: This holiday is quite simple; it's the celebration of Jesus' birth. Of course, we don't really know the exact day Jesus was born, but we've been celebrating it on December 25 since the early to mid 4th century. To learn more about the real gift of Christmas visit http://lds.org/topic/christmas
Interesting Fact: American mistletoe, the kind most often associated with kissing, is one of 1,300 species of mistletoe worldwide but one of only two that are native to the United States. The other is dwarf mistletoe.

Day of Thanks

Holiday: Thanksgiving
Date: November 24, 2011
History: Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the fourth Thursday of November. It is a day of family, food and football. This holiday tradition traces back to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth. However, there is plenty of debate about where the first Thanksgiving was actually held. The first Thanksgiving celebrated on the same date by all the states was in 1863. It was Abraham Lincoln who proclaimed the date to be the final Thursday in November. In 1941 however, federal legislation changed the unified date to the fourth Thursday in November.
Interesting Facts: Sarah Josepha Hale wrote letters to politicians for around 40 years campaigning to make Thanksgiving an official holiday. Minnesota is the top turkey-producing state in America. Cranberry production in the U.S. is expected to reach 750 million pounds this year. The largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long. Snoopy has appeared as a giant balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade more times than any other character in history.

All Hallows' Eve

Holiday: Halloween
Date: October 31, 2011
History: History.com describes it best: "Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off raomaing ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints' Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows' Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a secular, community-based event characterized by child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating. In a number of countries around the world, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the winter season with gathering, costumes and sweet treats."
Interesting Facts: One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween. Carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns originated hundreds of years ago in Ireland. However, they made them out of turnips or potatoes since it wasn't until Irish immigrants arrived in America that they discovered pumkins. Haunted house attractions bring in about half a billion dollars annually. Halloween is the second most commercially successful holiday world-wide after Christmas.

ITLAPD

Holiday: Talk Like A Pirate Day
Date: September 19, 2011
History: "Talk Like A Pirate Day is an original concept created in a moment of temporary insanity by John Baur and Mark Summers." The history of how this "holiday" came to be is quite entertaining and we just cannot do it justice here. So please head on over to http://www.talklikeapirate.com/about to read how this phenomenon got started.
Interesting Facts: This is Talk Like A Pirate Day, not Dress Like A Pirate Day. According to the Pirate Guys, there is already a Dress Like A Pirate Day...it's called Halloween. Also, there is no special term for a woman pirate. "Oh sure, you can refer to a woman as a 'wench,' and that has a piratey feel. But technically, a woman pirate is still a pirate. In fact, using the term 'woman pirate' as if that's somehow different than 'pirate' completely misses the point: your cargo's been stolen, your ship is sinking and you might be dead. That's the point. Everything else is just details."

Shirtless Day

See pictures in the rest of the posts. We have decided to leave our shirtless men on the tree indefinitely.

Holiday: Go Shirtless Day
Date: September 3, 2011
History: We were not able to find much written about the history of this "holiday." We just really like it and felt it deserved it's own day on the holiday tree. Every September 3rd is "Go Shirtless Day" in downtown San Antonio.
Interesting Fact: This special day applies to men only.

The Non-Holiday Tree

Holiday: None
Date: August
History: August is notorious for being holiday free. Sure, August is a busy month. But it's free from any major holidays. We did our research and found several bizarre and unique holidays that happen during the month of August, but nothing piqued our interest enough to decorate. Plus, we're busy this month! So our holiday tree currently sits barren and empty. Rest assured though, we've got big plans for next month.
Interesting Facts: Some of the bizarre and unique holidays we discovered in August include: National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, Work Like a Dog Day, National Mustard Day, Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day, Middle Child's Day, Ride the Wind Day, Just Because Day and More Herbs, Less Salt Day.

4th of July

Holiday: Independence Day
Date: July 4, 2011
History: According to Wikipedia, "Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States."
Interesting Facts: The word ‘patriotism’ comes from the Latin patria, which means ‘homeland’ or ‘fatherland.’

Stephanie's Day

What do Carson Daly, Dan Brown and Meryl Streep all have in common? They share a birthday with Miss Stephanie Rock.

Stephanie is one of a kind. I promise, there is no one else like her in the world. She is friendly and warm as well as spunky. She is your biggest fan and your number one supporter. Always on the go, you'll never be bored if you spend time with her. And did you know, you can actually call her Dr. Rock? As if she wasn't cool enough.

Happy birthday Dr. Rock! We love you.

Father's Day

Holiday: Father's Day
Date: June 19, 2011
History: Celebrated in the U.S. on the third Sunday of June, Father's Day is a holiday honoring fathers all over the world. It became an official U.S. holiday in 1972. Sonora Smart Dodd is generally credited with originating the holiday. She is said to have had the idea in 1909 while listening to a sermon on Mother's Day.
Interesting Fact: 62 years passed between the first Father's Day celebration and its recognition as an official holiday.

For more information, go to www.history.com/topics/fathers-day.

Lynette's Day

Have you met the nicest woman on the planet? We have. In fact, we live with her! Lynette is one of the most thoughtful, genuine people you will ever meet. And she is so nice! Seriously, who else would put up with a "Christmas" tree in their living room for a year? Lynette is also a recent graduate (she's going to be a teacher), an award-winning photographer and our number one supporter in whatever we do. So happy birthday Lynette. You are one in a million and we love you.

Mother's Day

Holiday: Mother's Day

Date: May 8, 2011

History: Mother's Day is celebrated throughout many parts of the world on various days. It is a day to honor mothers and motherhood. In the United States, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Created by Anna Jarvis in 1908, President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914. Lake many holidays in the U.S., Mother's Day has become very commercialized. In fact, Anna Jarvis eventually regretted what her holiday had become.

Interesting Facts: Mother's Day is the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls. There are approximately two billion mothers in the world and 82.5 million mothers in the U.S.

For more information, visit www.mothersdaycelebration.com.

Eggs, Bunnies and Baskets

Holiday: Easter
Date: April 24, 2011
History: Easter is a religious holiday celebrating Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead and in the West, is observed on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21 (this could fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25). However, Easter is not a single day of observance. Lent, Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, Holy Week including Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday and Eastertide are all part of this celebration. Not surprisingly, there is a commercial side to the Easter celebration. Folk customs and pagan traditions like Easter eggs, bunnies, baskets and candy have, overtime, become a standard part of Easter (very similar to Christmas).
Interesting Facts: After Halloween, Easter is the second best-selling candy holiday in America. According to the National Confectioners Association, over 16 billion jelly beans are made in the U.S. each year for Easter, enough to fill a giant egg measuring 89 feet high and 60 feet wide. Any Peep lovers out there? For the past decade, that has been the top-selling, non-chocolate Easter candy.

For more information, visit http://www.history.com/topics-of-easter or http://www.history.com/topics/easter-symbols.

Robbie's Day

Hands down, Robbie is one of the coolest girls on the planet. We cannot say enough about her. From her graceful dancing to her stellar guitar skills, she is a favorite around our house. We love, love, love this girl. Happy Birthday on your "big" day Robbie!

Saint Paddy's Day

Holiday: Saint Patrick's Day

Date: March 17, 2011

History: Saint Patrick's day is celebrated on March 17 in honor of Saint Patrick, a patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. He is also known for driving all of the snakes out of Ireland. (While it is true that there are no snakes in Ireland, most likely there never has been any.) For over a thousand years, the Irish have observed Saint Patrick's Day as a religious holiday. Today, the holiday is associated with everything Irish including the color green, shamrocks and luck. However, many still celebrate Saint Patrick's Day as it was originally intended: as a traditional day for spiritual renewal and the offering of prayers for missionaries all over the world.

Interesting Facts: If you catch a leprechaun, they have to give you their gold. This is a lucky event that can only happen in Ireland and is just one explanation for the Gaelic expression, Beannachtai na Feile Padraig, which is a wish for you to have all the blessings of Saint Patrick's Day and the "luck of the Irish" to go with it. Here in the US, more than 100 parades are held and in Chicago, they dye the Chicago River green (we recommend going to Google Images and searching "Chicago River St. Patrick's Day").

For more information, visit http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day.