When Matteo asked and was told what we were going to do tomorrow for St. Patrick’s day, he was disappointed to learn that it wasn’t a school or work holiday, and that it was going to be mostly business-as-usual. He loves pre-school, but also loves his time at home and our weekend/holiday activities. I didn’t bother telling him about my childhood, when my 100% Irish mother would take us out of school to bring us to New York City for the sometimes-diginified-sometimes-not St. Patrick’s Day parade or how many people, Irish or whatever, seem to consider March 18th a work holiday. Instead, I reminded Matteo that he could look forward to our special once-a-year meal of corned beef for dinner. He needed no reminding that we’d be enjoying Martinelli’s Gold Metal Sparkling Cider with the meal because we’d been talking about it since Valentine’s Day, when we had a hard conversation about there being no dinner tradition involved–just lousy chocolate.
Matteo’s sense of holiday anticipation is mostly fueled by the calendar he keeps on the wall opposite of his bed. This year’s calendar theme (and theme of life) is giraffes. Each month is dotted with the birthdays of friends and family and, of course, all the holidays, each of which are the start of the countdown to the next major or minor holiday. It will be years before Matteo understands which holidays are Martinelli’s holidays or not, school or not, federal or bank. Until then and as always, I’m grateful to vicariously enjoy some of his perpetual excitement and wonder and anticipation.