Planning the Year

Okay, I'm a little in love with the idea of the Liturgical Year if you haven't noticed already.  I love having special days to make our own that haven't been owned by a major label.  I love that it gives us a chance to get to know our own histories and other cultures. I love that it's lead to connections with family and friends who desire the same in their year.

So with all that love for a year of celebrations in mind I do what I do best - I made a Word Calendar.  Seriously, I love Word Calendars.

Here are a few of the things that our making up our Year (liturgical and otherwise) -

• Major Holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas, 4th of July, etc. anything we'd normal celebrate in someway.

• Birthdays and Anniversaries - I'm a notorious for forgetting of these things and am trying to change.

• Holy Days of Obligation - the days we're supposed to be at church (this is new to me and I'm doing my best to participate accordingly)

• Major Feast Days - the old-school feast days that are so fun because they're not own by a department store - Michaelmas, All Saints, Martinmas, Epiphany, etc.

• Saint of the Year Days - We used the Random Saint Generator to pick a Saint to learn from this year.  Mine is St. Anthony of Padua, Ben's is St. Francis of Paola and Henry's is St. Charles Borromeo.  I really have no idea what we'll be doing on these days, but they're in the calendar anyways.

• Favorite Saint Days - St. Francis and St. Thomas More are some personal favorites for our family so far.

• Silly Days - We are quite fond of days like Velociraptor Awareness Day and International Speak Like A Pirate Day in our family.

• Seasonal Days - I want to start making family traditions to celebrate seasonal changes like the Solstice. 

• Local Fun Days - Yearly traditions like the local JazzFest and ArtsFest are already on the calendar!

Overall, other than months that have many birthdays or celebrations in them naturally, we got a nice little calendar filled with about two or three extra things to look forward to.  I think the key here is not to over plan - the more jam-packed the calendar the more likely things will come up.  And while we have lots of "feast days" and the like we want to key our celebrations rather simple - a special dinner or maybe just a special treat.  Some days call for a special activity together and some days call for just a simple act of charity.  I still want to keep our lives simple while striving to make things a little more special.

In the paraphrased words of my wiser-than-I husband:

"If we don't mark the passing of the days then all the days will do is pass us by."

Is there anything special you're trying to incorporate into your year?