海角大神

One of my resolutions is to celebrate holiday breakfasts. However, I鈥檝e realized, that resolution should actually be framed as a subset of more general resolution, something like "celebrate minor holidays" or "find occasions for festivity." Today is May Day, a festival that celebrates the changing of seasons with dancing and maypoles. This weekend, too, marks another "minor holiday:" Cinco de Mayo, a nationwide celebration of Mexican heritage, and an important Mexican defeat of French invading forces that influenced the course of the Civil War. (And who could forget the not-so-minor Mother's Day, which is just around the corner!)

In any event, I followed this resolution on Leap Day this year, and felt I might share our experiences with you. Perhaps you will be inspired to celebrate other small holidays.

This year, I鈥檇 been feeling oddly thrilled by the approach of Leap Day, but it hadn鈥檛 occurred to me to celebrate it, until I heard someone else鈥檚 plan.

At an event in Dallas a few weeks ago, a woman told me that she was taking her four kids out of school on February 29 for a day of fun. I was enchanted by this idea, but I鈥檓 too much of a Hermione to pull my daughters out of school. Instead, I picked them both up and swept them away for an afternoon of special adventures.

First, we went to Ripley鈥檚 Believe It or Not Odditorium in Times Square. I figured that was an appropriate thing to do: Ripley鈥檚 celebrates the unusual and rare, and Leap Day is fun because it鈥檚 unusual and rare.

Then we went to Dylan鈥檚 Candy Bar (a giant candy store). My husband doesn鈥檛 enjoy that kind of thing, so my daughters hadn鈥檛 been there before, and if you like that sort of place鈥攎y daughters and I do鈥攊t鈥檚 tremendously fun. The girls spent a very long time making their candy choices.

Truth be told, as adventures go, this wasn鈥檛 very ambitious. We barely left our neighborhood, and the entire outing lasted less than three hours. Still, it felt special, like a 鈥渢reat.鈥� Also, I know myself; I have to keep my resolutions manageable, or I can鈥檛 keep them at all. One of my most important Secrets of Adulthood鈥�Don鈥檛 let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

One of the main themes of my happiness project is memory. Time is passing so quickly; I worry that I won鈥檛 remember this time of life, what it鈥檚 like to have children this age. My shorthand for this worry is the days are long, but the years are short (of everything I鈥檝e ever written, my one-minute video, The Years Are Short, is the thing that resonates most with people).

Celebrating minor holidays is one way to make time stand out. Because this day was unusual, it鈥檚 more memorable.

Another theme of my happiness project is light-heartedness. Instead of marching around checking things off my to-do list all the time, I want to take time for silliness, for fun, for adventures. Something like Leap Day is a good hook.

Related: Are you a Helicopter Parent? Take our quiz to find out!

Did you celebrate Leap Day? Do you do anything to celebrate other minor holidays?

* I鈥檓 a huge fan of Bob Sutton鈥檚 work, both his blog Work Matters and his terrific books. I was pleased to see that Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best鈥�and Learn from the Worst has just come out in paperback.

海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best family and parenting bloggers out there. Our contributing and guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor, and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. Gretchen Rubin blogs at The Happiness Project.