…. to all my fellow bloggers who live in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, Canada

This got me to thinking about how other people in the world might be celebrating today. Is it a normal work day or do you have the day off today as well. For years, we Canadians envied our U.S. neighbours who had an official day off at least once a month.  In the last decade or more our Ontario government officials toyed with the idea of creating an official holiday in February.

Here’s a little history of when Family Day came to be in Canada that I copied directly from: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/canada/family-day

Family Day was first held in Canada in the province of Alberta in 1990. It is supposed to reflect the values of family and home that were important to the pioneers who founded Alberta, and give workers the opportunity to spend more time with their families. Family Day was introduced in Saskatchewan in 2007 and in Ontario in 2008. British Columbia observes Family Day as a statutory holiday for the first time in 2013. One of the reasons for introducing Family Day was that there was a long period when there were no holidays from New Year’s Day until Good Friday.

Here are a few photos of my family taken in the last year or so.

My three ‘girls’.

My son, home for a short visit before heading back to the Netherlands.

So how is everyone celebrating today?  We had our official Family Day celebration yesterday. All the immediate family that live close by came to the house and we had a

My daughter and her husband.

family dinner. My husband made a great pasta and sausage bake, my oldest daughter and her partner brought a yummy Iranian quinoa rice and sweet potato salad and my youngest daughter and her husband made a decadent flour less  chocolate cake…..not exactly diet food. To top it off I got into one of my Martha Stewart moments and just had to bake chocolate spice cupcakes with pink buttercream icing in honour of Valentine’s Day.

The cupcakes and the leftover food were all packed up and divided amongst the girls and the freezer (except the cupcakes….all but two were given away).

My middle sister and her fiancé.

My baby sister and her husband.

A rare photo with all three sisters together, our father and his partner and my husband and my sister’s son.

This morning I slept in till 8:30 and then caught up on some reading. I finally emerged from the bedroom at about 10:30, had a cup of coffee and then got ready to go for our morning walk. It snowed again here on Saturday night so the ice is covered with a pretty substantial layer of fresh snow. I brought along my camera as I always do but the sun was so bright that I had a hard time focusing on anything.

When we got back from our 3k walk, K made us a delicious omelet with lots of vegetables. I’m trying to convince him to go with me on a bit of a photo journaling expedition this afternoon. In the meantime I’ll finish writing this blog, read a bit more and probably work on some samples for my next art project at school.

I’d love to hear from you and how you’re spending the day. Drop me a line. Have a great day!

Cheers!