So today was May Day. In Belgium, May Day is a bank holiday and the sun was probably shining so everyone probably had a nice day off from school and work. With maybe a picnic at the Chateau, or a lovely day sitting in the garden sipping French rose wine. Sigh.
Today in Minnesota, I wore my winter coat. I didn't even want to take it off when I got inside the house. I am just so tired of being cold.
In any event, I completely forgot about the May Days of my childhood. The ones where we would leave little baskets of popcorn and candy for our friends in the neighborhood, by ringing their doorbells and running to hide before they could see us. It was the only day of the year where ding-dong-doorbell-ditching was ok.
I forgot about those May Day... until tonight.
The wind outside was blowing. The storm clouds were rolling across the sky, threatening, but not quite delivering anything but darkness.
We're having one of those crazy weeknight weeks where one kid has soccer practice right over dinnertime. The other two were having a dinner date in the kitchen and I seized a quiet moment to run down to the laundry room. (I know, I know. But I promise, we still try to make sure there are more family dinner nights than not.) Anyway, I heard Monkey and Miss B calling me, with terror in their voices.
"Mommy! Someone is knocking on our BACK door! Who could be knocking on our BACK door?!" Miss B's lower lip quivered and as far as they were concerned, I couldn't get to the back door fast enough.
When we opened the door, the branches on the naked lilac bush were waving, but we didn't see anyone, anywhere.
But a small, handmade construction flower lay at our feet. And I remembered.
I explained the May Day tradition to the kids with a smile, and promised that next year we would do better.
So to whichever neighbor thought of us tonight, and successfully left a May Day greeting without getting caught, thank you.
