Why I Celebrate Leap Day & Other Minor Holidays

February 29 on calendar

One of my favorite resolutions — and I write about it in my books The Happiness Project and Happier at Home — is to celebrate minor holidays.

Celebrating minor holidays is fun, it’s low-stress, and it helps make memories.

And today is Leap Day! Last Leap Day, I took my daughters to Ripley’s Believe It or Not and to Dylan’s Candy Bar.

But this year, our lives are different. After school, my older daughter has lacrosse practice, and she also has to study physics, so she didn’t have time to go on an adventure — even a minor adventure.

But I wanted to do something. So I’ve told them, “At about 9:15 tonight, when we’re usually winding down for the evening, we’re going to go out! For a fancy dessert!”

For me, Leap Day is a variation of Opposite Day. It’s a day when unexpected and crazy things can happen. I’m usually very focused on family members being ready for bed on time, and while I don’t enforce my own low-carb rules on my family, I usually don’t go out of my way to seek out high-sweets situations.

But that’s the fun of Leap Day, and the thing that will make it memorable. It’s so different from what we usually do.

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