Posts Categorized: Holidays
Happy Halloween, everyone! In our neck of the woods, the trees are getting really pretty, there’s a nip in the air, and I’m scouring Pinterest for decor ideas and recipes to enhance the Halloween fun here at Casa Owen. Our cat Tora is starting to snuggle on my lap for longer stretches of time as…
Hurray, September 29th is National Coffee Day! I’d say the beverage was worthy of some recognition, don’t you? Fun facts about coffee: Coffee is said to have been first used by Sufi monasteries in Yemen in the 15th century Americans drink an average of 30 oz of coffee per day $40 billion (yep, that’s a…
Happy Equinox, everyone! Today is the day when the angle of the sun is straight on the equator, and the amount of day and night are nearly equal. In the northern hemisphere, this makes it our autumnal equinox (southern hemisphere has the vernal equinox). So for those of you who have been eagerly awaiting the…
Yesterday (the second Sunday of September) was National Grandparents’ Day, first celebrated officially in 1978, when the proclamation was signed by President Jimmy Carter. We’re a little late, but grandparents are so awesome that I think they deserve an extra day of celebration, don’t you? 😉 Sadly, none of my grandparents are still living, but…
Mother’s Day is coming! (Why do I see a few shocked faces out there? Better get cracking). In honor of the occasion, I’ve created a little infographic of Top Ten Things Moms Say (translations included). What favorite Mom-isms have you heard (or said)? I’d love to hear from you! By the way, here’s…
Happy April Fool’s, everyone! In honor of the occasion, I thought I’d provide a little snippet of what Victorians in the U.S. liked to do on this day, as seen through the eyes of some New York newspapers of the time. Below is an illustration of common pranks: the brick-under-the hat trick, the money-on-a-rope ruse,…
…or “Fasnacht” Day, an old Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. It’s celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday, on the same day as Fat Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras. A fasnacht is a pastry deep-fried in lard, similar to a donut, often dusted with sugar. The fasnacht tradition has merged with the Polish paczki (a donut filled with jelly that…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Valentine’s Day is coming up. Yep, the holiday that keeps the greeting card, flower, and chocolate industries afloat until Mother’s Day. Usually the gifts are simple: chocolates, cards, flowers…maybe a diamond? But what about the special mystery lover in your life? The usual offerings just…