3DPO really enjoyed the Winter Olympics. It started with the pageantry of the Opening Ceremonies.  Sometimes athletes would wrap themselves up in the flag of their country like a blanket, and everyone would cheer!  3DPO wondered what that felt like, so Jed Newhardt, CPO and Art Ross, Fabrication Tech found some flag like material that was for laminations so 3DPO could try it.  He considered there were actually holidays for celebrating with the flag.

There were holidays almost every month - with the exception of August, which didn't seem to have any!  He understood some holidays were to recognize historical figures.  Martin Luther King Day (1/15/2018) and Presidents Day (2/19/2018) did that.  There were other days about people - Columbus Day (10/8/2018) and Valentine's Day (2/14/2018). St. Patrick's Day (3/17/2018) was quite exciting to him as everyone and everything was green.  3DPO was always prepared, so no one could pinch him for not wearing green!

There were religious observances: Christmas Day (12/25/2018), Hanukkah (begins 12/2/2018), Passover (begins 3/30/2018), Easter (4/1/2018), Ramadan (begins 5/15/18), and surprisingly, Halloween (10/31/2018).  He knew there were many others, so he Googled "religious holidays" and found a list.  He had helped Heather Iman at the Cumberland office decorate for Christmas - but there were so many different celebrations to read about!  

Mardi Gras (2/13/18), the day before Ash Wednesday, seemed to be an enormous party day - specifically in New Orleans.  Nina Bondre, CPO and Kelsey Kasten, CPO had attended a P&O symposium in New Orleans that week and probably could tell him more about that.  "Mardi Gras" is French for "Fat Tuesday" and many people wore bead necklaces and masks as part of the celebration. He had a mask like that.

He thought about the nice notices that Nancy Lee, System Administrator, created to post on the Dankmeyer website and Facebook and the display board at the Linthicum office.  These included Mother's Day (5/13/2018) and Father's Day (6/17/2018).  Labor Day (9/3/2018) was a another day that offices were closed.  Thanksgiving (11/22/2018), which some people called Turkey Day, was a time Dankmeyer was closed for TWO days.

Days related to the change of time and seasons were on the calendar.  There was one called Groundhog Day (2/2/2018) when a groundhog predicts how much longer winter will last.  Imagine that! The biggest "time" day was New Year's Day - the first day of the year.  That was a day off from work, as the night before was marked with a lot of parties and particularly fireworks at midnight keeping everyone up late. 

Fireworks seemed to figure prominently on the Fourth of July.  Parades, costumes, fireworks, special foods - and definitely the flag, were all a big part of the day that marked the day the USA was born!  Flag Day (6/14/2018) was all about the flag itself. Other solemn days such as Memorial Day (5/28/2018), Veterans Day (11/11/2018), Armed Services Day (5/19/2018) and Pearl Harbor Day (12/7/2018) had parades and the flag was displayed in many different ways.

He knew people celebrated their own special days not on his printed calendar. One was Major League Baseball Opening Day - because everyone at Dankmeyer was a Baltimore Orioles fan, and they would probably dress up to support the team.  That was 3/29/2018 this year - the earliest Opening Day ever.  National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day was going to be 5/15/2018  and even more important than that was Take Your Dog to Work Day on 6/23/2018.  Jamie Dean, Patient Services Representative was sure to bring 3DPO's and Digit's friend Fathom, a therapy dog, to Dankmeyer on that day. Fathom visited the office every third Friday of the month.

There were also "snow days", which were pretty random and weather related, when children got a holiday from school.  And of course, everyone had their personal holiday just for them and that was their Birth Day!  That one had decorations, cake, presents and mini-fireworks!  Well, candles anyway.  Last, but not least, 3DPO considered the upcoming 4/1/2018 - April Fool's Day.  That was not really a holiday - no one was closed and there weren't parades or flags, or special food or people or even a historical event.  It was just a day about playing tricks on people.  3DPO thought he had some time to plan a trick he could play on Dankmeyer people.  They knew him so well, but he might be able to get away with coming to work disguised as someone else so they wouldn't recognize him.  This would require careful consideration, but he thought it might work!