May Day

May 1st has come and gone. Did you even know there was a holiday to celebrate on May 1st? It was May Day folks!

You mean to tell me you didn't make a colorful basket out of tissue paper, throw some candy it in, leave it on someone's doorstep, and then ring the doorbell and run until your friend caught you and kissed you.

Yea, well we didn't get to all of that this year.

But my Mom did. Well, the basket part, not the ring and run part.

Now, apparently I was the only child whose family ever celebrated May Day growing up, because everyone I talk to thinks I'm crazy. So, I'll let you in on the May Day secret. Now, be careful, because once you find out about this holiday you'll want to celebrate June Day, July Day and every other first day of the month.

May Day rolled around this year and sure enough there was that lovely little note in our mailbox saying we had a package waiting for us in the office. A PACKAGE IN THE OFFICE! That has got to be my favorite part of the day. Getting the mail and hoping I have a package in the office.

We open the box to find a May Basket, hand folded and cut, just like we use to make when we were little. Yes, every May Day my Mom would sit us down at the kitchen table with tissue paper of every color to make May Baskets. I always picked something pretty - pink, purple, green - while Matthew on the other hand never failed to make his basket a very manly camoflague - green, grey, brown - probably hoping it would make it that much harder for us to find his candy later on.

We have endless hours of video footage of one of us kids waiting in the house while the other two hung the May Basket, rang the doorbell and ran around to hide in the bushes. The front door would open and sure enough, each of us would act surprised, as if to say, "I have no idea how this basket got here or who left it!"

Why we didn't just take the candy and go back inside to enjoy our treats, I'll never know. But, sure enough, the home videos prove it, we began the chase that never ended in a kiss, but usually a push to the ground. Sometimes it ended in crying because our fragile basket ripped in the process, sometimes it ended in complaining that so-and-so got some candy we didn't get, and sometimes it just ended in silence because us kids were all too busy chowing down on sugar.

This year our May Basket didn't have candy, but something even better. Bop It Extreme 2. Mom, who tutors and teaches kids how to strengthen their brain and who knows how much Danny LOVES anything that stretches his mind, is always sending us fun little toys that are good for the head.

So, now we are engaging in some healthy competition. The loser must listen to the winner play the "high score" over and over and over again. We can't put this game down. We take it in the car, play while watching tv, and I even set my highest personal score while standing at the stove waiting for dinner to cook last night.

It was all fun and games until one of Danny's 9th grade Sunday School boys played the game while we were riding around town last week and set the high score to 145. Did you read that? 145?! Danny's highest score was 81 and my highest score was 72. It was a depressing moment. How will we ever beat 145.

And so, if we don't answer our phones, come to the door, or reply to emails you know what we're doing. We must get our brain skills equal to that of a 9th grader - WE MUST. And so, we are at home, at this very moment, probably practicing Bop It.