Friday, July 01, 2011

Canada Day

We did not join the estimated 300,000 people on Parliament Hill today. Canada Day usually attracts a large crowd to the city’s centre – add in the celebrity royals, William and Kate, and numbers swell beyond reason. Certainly beyond anything I would like to join.

So to celebrate our national holiday, we went, as we often do, the Experimental Farm. Miya is a big fan of the horses there and today she got to ride on a horse drawn wagon and watch some displays of horsemanship. Admittance was free and there were enough extra visitors and people clad in red to make things festive without being pressing or hectic. She even got her first taste of ice cream.

In the afternoon a couple of Miya’s friends came over to join her in the paddling pool and have a bbq. Hanging out with friends and toddlers in the backyard - a relaxing and casual way to mark a national holiday.

I was reading an article recently bemoaning the demise of non-commemorative, non-commercialized regular ol’ parties – where people simply get together to enjoy one another’s company, not because someone is getting a divorce, or planning a wedding, or revealing the sex of their baby, or some other self-referential ‘milestone’.

My approach to parties, at least those I’m hosting, is about as regular and non-commercialized as one can get, in fact they’re more the ‘beer’s in the fridge, food’s on the grill, mi casa es su casa’ type events. There’s a small part of me that would love to host a well-coordinated, trendy affair – but the realities of my life are otherwise.

Parties in our backyard are far more likely to include naked children peeing in the paddling pool than canapés and chilled wine served amid stylish decor.

That said, having a child has actually made me much more social and likely to throw a party – the peeing-in-the-pool variety that is. Miya enjoys playing with her friends and I appreciate our big backyard much more when there are a few toddlers running around in it. And since most of the people we have over seem to have a similar party sensibility to us, it all works out just fine.

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