Another Holiday

I know, everyone is still eating their chocolates, admiring new jewelry, appreciating flowers and love from Valentine's Day but in our family this is the day we look forward to.  

HAPPY PRESIDENT'S DAY

That's right President's Day!!!   

We have a grandson who is a history buff and loves to learn about the President's.  He has been this way since he was a toddler.  I remember he used to call me when he was living in Arizona to ask me to look up different information on presidents. 

It was not a stretch to make this a celebrated holiday when the family moved to Oklahoma when he was in Kindergarten. 

Now, the nice thing about this holiday is -- WE MAKE OUR OWN RULES!!

That's right. No expectations. Whatever we want to do we do.  No need to feel like we have to do certain things. It's just all about enjoying the day and learning. 

We always have a special meal together. And we always do Presidential trivia.  

We have expanded our mode of celebration now that the kids are older and we do reports on Presidents. Not everyone has to do a report but we usually have 3-4 (or even more) reports on various Presidents.  We try to remember who has been reported on previously so we can learn about different ones.

A few years ago we added a little skit to our festivities.  We had auditions for parts and everything. We are doing a skit again this year as well.  The first skit involved President Taft and his pet unicorn. Lily wrote that skit.  

K.C. has written our skit this year about President Hoover. 

Gary has had a challenge for the last few years for anyone who can name all the presidents in order. The reward is a pound bar of chocolate. Knowing how we all like chocolate you would think we would work on that harder.  

We have learned a lot of facts regarding Presidents from our trivia games:

•  Franklin Pierce gave his 3,319 word inaugural address from memory without any notes.   
• Andrew Jackson was the first president to ride a railroad train.
• Zachary Taylor received his nomination for presidency late because he refused all postage due correspondences.
• Grover Cleveland personally answered the White House phone.

But one of the best pieces of of trivia we learned early on that became a favorite of the kids is that William Taft was so big he got stuck in the White House bathtub.  They had to order a bigger one.  

So here's wishing all of you  a Happy President's Day. My family and I would like to encourage you to make this a holiday you celebrate.  You are welcome to use any of the activities we use or create your own.  If you do this, let us know what you do.  Remember this is a holiday that has no expectations and you can embrace in any way you want to. However you do it - enjoy it!