C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-I-O-N! (Free-speaking Friday)

Does the song "Celebrate" jump into your mind after reading the title of this post?  People (my mother) will use any excuse for a celebration.  Growing up, we always went out to dinner to celebrate everything:  Easter Sunday, Father's Day, a lost tooth, a paper cut (ha ha), etc.  In accordance with my randomness of Friday posts, I wanted to mention a few arbitrary things my mom always celebrates.

The reason I bring this up in the first place is that yesterday was Cinco de Mayo.  May 5th.  A Mexican holiday or Spanish or something totally unrelated to our heritage.  I could Google it and give you a history lesson but that's not the point.  Every year my mother and her significant other, along with their friends, go out on Cinco de Mayo to celebrate.  To celebrate what?  Who knows. I think it's just an excuse to have a few margaritas!

St. Patrick's Day is traditionally known as the holiday honoring the Irish Saint Patrick.  It's also an excuse to eat corned beef & cabbage and get drunk on green beer.  Now I'm sure my mother passes on the green beer (or at least the getting drunk part) and she's not Irish, but she and her cohorts go out every year on March 17th for corned beef and cabbage.  More power to them.

I already discussed the "give something up for Lent" thing.  As far as I know (which may be very little), Lent is a Catholic thing.  Are we Catholic?  No.  And giving up chocolate would never be considered a celebratory thing, but this kind of goes along with the celebration/traditional ideas that my mother perpetually persists in doing.

This Saturday is the Kentucky Derby.  Our family is not a huge supporter of horse racing.  We're not affiliated with the sport at all, although we do enjoy watching the big Triple Crown races and my parents occasionally attend a day at the track in Saratoga.  The other day when Mom was discussing how busy the month of May is for her, she was going day by day and telling me what she had planned.  I kid you not, watching the Kentucky Derby was on her list.  One of these years I'm going to make a pitcher of mint julips and send her a big floppy hat so she can really get into the Churchill Downs spirit.

This may sound like I'm poking fun at my mom, and maybe I am, a little.  But she truly is a fun and thoughtful person, and I think all of these "celebrations" just show how she embraces those qualities.  Finding the positives in life is a true talent (that she excels at) - whether it be drinking a margarita on May 5 or calling my dad (a veteran) to thank him for his service on Veterans Day or sending my son an extra $10 for a good report card.  She enjoys the little (and big) things in life and all of us around her benefit from that.

This weekend is Mother's Day, so in honor of my mom, let's celebrate!!!

Here's our family (mom front & center) "celebrating" Thanksgiving 2010...albeit 3 days after the actual holiday!