Taking a Holiday

By: Erin Rose Hennessy and Emily Eileen Moreshead

A vacation means different things to everyone. For some, it’s a far-flung European country for a month. For some, it’s a day off spent downtown. With the holidays approaching, we thought we’d take some time to reflect on our favorite things about holidays and vacations.

What is your favorite holiday?

Erin: I enjoy them all, but I have a special place in my heart for Halloween.

Emily: Halloween as well for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it’s Scorpio season and as a Scorpio, it makes it all the more creepy. Secondly, it’s very close to my birthday and I always appreciated being born in one of the darkest months of the year, 13 days later. And thirdly, who doesn’t enjoy dressing up and acting as another soul or entity for one night? Me! In general though, I most love holidays for the time off, like during Christmas, before the chaotic start of a new year drowns us all in crushing debt! (I say this partly in jest by the way.)

Any traditions you love and look forward to each year?

Erin: For Halloween, we have a big party at school and all the kids (and sometimes their parents!) dress up and we get to spend time with all the kids & their families. It’s really a nice community gathering. Christmas – I always look forward to seeing family and friends, watching my nephews tear into their presents, baking Christmas cookies, and watching Christmas movies.

Emily: For Christmas I look forward to both our family Christmas Eve party at my home and our Christmas Day party at one of my sisters’ homes. It’s very casual, laid-back, and it’s an open house for whomever wants to drop by and celebrate. We do a seriously insane Yankee Swap that can last hours and a grown up game of Cards Against Humanity once we’ve enjoyed watching the kids open their long-awaited gifts!

Favorite Christmas/Holiday Movie?

Erin: How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Emily: The Christmas Box

Any New Year’s plans?

Emily: Sadly I do spend a few hours working but New Year’s Eve is spent quiet and relaxed and because I’m old I’m generally in bed at midnight.

Erin: I’m working New Year’s Eve, but we might make confetti or something fun with the kids. A friend and I are thinking about going out to celebrate but in 30-something introvert terms that means go to dinner, possibly a movie, get home by ten.

Describe your ideal day off!

Erin: I would sleep in (or at least stay in bed), have a nice breakfast, then go out and about for awhile, maybe to a museum or a park (depending on the weather) or hang out with a friend, go out to lunch, then probably stay home the rest of the day and watch TV or play Wii, cook a nice dinner, and then write with my lovely co-writer!

Emily: This is a pipe dream mind you but I would love, love, love to spend the entire day alone drinking unlimited caffeine and taking sporadic naps between watching vintage episodes of Days of our Lives and writing!

It’s nice to be able to take some time to relax and to think and to dream when life is not so scheduled with mundane activities. Holidays always bring a newfound yet familiar happiness to the world we live in, a way to recapture time in a bottle, if only for a day.

Hopefully we’ll all be able to take some “me time” this holiday season, but also relish in time spent with our friends and family.

Happy Holidays everyone!