Leap Day Lore

"Aa-aw Mom, I love you!" Aaron said as he rambled into the kitchen for an 11 a.m. breakfast on this Leap Day, a spontaneous school holiday due to "The Big One" - a snowstorm stretching across much of the Midwest and into the northeastern United States.

I couldn't believe my ears. Aaron hadn't said he loved me in more than a decade - since Noah stole his spot as our family's youngest.



Shocked to hear those three little words, I replied, "What???" My 15-year-old son explained, "I LOVE these muffins! THANKS for makin' 'em."

Now, I'm certain: The way to a man's heart is through his stomach!

And that thought brings to mind a bit of Leap Day Lore. Seven "Leap Days" ago, I was a 16-year-old exchange student living in Norway. On this day in 1984, I was with my host family on a cross-country-ski vacation in the mountains of Numedal. On the mountainside, several other families with teenagers also had cabins. My host mom loved to tease.

"Now, Vendy," she said. "Once every four years on February 29th, ladies have the privilege of proposing marriage to any man."

"What?" I asked my host mom. The incurable romantic explained that sometimes men just don't get the hint, so every four years, a woman gets her chance to express her love interest. With her head held high, her right eye half closed, her left eyebrow raised and her tongue-in-cheek, my host mom wiggled her head side to side and said, "Today is that day, Vendy! You can go track down one of these young men on the mountain and pop the question."

I joined in her joke, wiggling my own head and replied, "And if he refuses?"

"He must give you twelve pairs of gloves," she said. I sputtered, "Why twelve pairs of gloves?"

She shrugged, "Maybe to hide the ringless finger?"

Today as I surfed the internet, I read several accounts of this tradition's origin. One grabbed my attention: Apparently in 1288, five-year-old Queen Margaret of Scotland was living in Norway and made a law requiring fines to be levied if a marriage proposal was refused by a man. The woman's compensation would be a pair of leather gloves, a rose, £1 and a kiss.  Another account notes: Danish tradition holds with the compensation of 12 pairs of gloves, which holds with my host mom's account and makes sense since Denmark ruled Norway for hundreds of years.

My point: Why bother with the Leap Day "Ladies' Privilege?" A real man knows what he wants and prefers to do the courting and proposing himself.

The woman's job is capture his heart. And as my son reminded me this morning:  one way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I'm training up him, and his brothers each, for someone special.

So ladies, roll out the Rolled Apple Muffins. Consider this the new Leap Day Lore!

By the way, my right eye's half closed, my left eyebrow's arched and my tongue's in cheek as I hold my head high and wiggle it side-to-side.