Today is Columbus Day. It's a Federal holiday in the
States. In Europe, it's just Monday.
For some of us, we actually have the day off from
work. For others, it's just Monday and the treadmill rolls on. I worked in law
offices for 26 years before we started this European saga and we NEVER were
closed on these holidays. We got the normal big ones like 4th of July,
Thanksgiving, Christmas but NEVER Presidents' Day, Columbus Day or any of those
"extra" days. We actually worked harder on those days because we
could get ahead of court deadlines and filings. I used to tell my husband who
was in the military that these weren't "real" holidays... he didn't
agree since he definitely had off!
So now that I have this job that is a government
contracted position, I get paid holiday pay for these days! What's not to
like??
Living in Europe though means that any of these
definitely American holidays are just another day of the week. It means that
even on Thanksgiving we can go to the grocery store for last minute items that
we may have forgotten. Of course, they don't have big turkeys (I'll be sharing
the pictures again of our Italian teeny tiny turkettes) or canned pumpkin or
cranberry sauce. They do have lots and lots of food which can be made into new
traditions while living far from home.
We decided to forego making the big pot of Italian sausage
soup until tomorrow and went to our new favorite pizzeria, Il Vulcano, just
down the road in Rotheaux. I have fun trying new pizzas each time while the
boys get their usual pizzas with jambon (ham) and salami piquant (closest thing
to pepperoni). This time I tried the Diavolo which has tomato sauce,
mozzarella, jambon, onions, red and yellow peppers. It never occurred to me
that it made sense to have something Italian in honor of Columbus. It just
happened. For those of you that are in favor of revising history and making a
thing about all of the negative things that came from Columbus, it's your
choice, but I'm not going there.
Doesn't this look great?
This is Fall break for our school so today was a day
off for our son. He's glad to get a break because we have had a rough couple of
months with wisdom teeth surgeries (no, they didn't believe in taking them all
out in one surgery with the good drugs - nope, 2 at a time with longer recovery
period). Also, finally starting the invisalign braces which is less dramatic
than the metal ones but still a big step and requiring appointments away from
school. Golf season meant missing a day each week for 3 weeks and then 2 days
last week for Europeans... Then there was my couple of weeks of crazy with
vertigo... It's been rough. We never had Fall or Spring break when I was in
high school but I'm glad they do here because it means that I don't have to do
my chauffeuring every day for a week!
So Happy Columbus Day or just Happy Monday everyone!
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