What Makes a Perfect Day?

By Deb Cummings

Forget New Year’s Eve for the moment. Let’s focus on our upcoming holidays and how some of us will spend them. We asked a few staffers at UCalgary’s downtown campus — where Development and Alumni Engagement is housed — for their idea of a “perfect day.”

Whether “together time” means TV time or it means tuning up your physical life over the break, here are how a few of us are homing in on holiday happiness.

When you’re seven, most every day is perfect. I let my daughter, Willa, design an ideal winter day for herself (see below) and, as it turns out, it’s my perfect day, too. Who knew my high watermark of fun and relaxation was at a Grade 2 level?! 

1. Eat heart-shaped waffles.
2. Go into the backyard and play in the snow.
3. Walk through the Botanical Gardens [in Silver Springs] and look for some dogs.
4. Drive to Canmore and go to that special place for mac ’n’ cheese and colouring [Rocky Mountain Flatbread].
5. Check into a condo.
6. Go snowshoeing all around the town.
7. Go back to condo for hot chocolate with marshmallows and a lot of whipped cream.
8. Play Monopoly for a really long time.
9. Go in the hot tub.
10. Go to bed.

What is your idea of a perfect holiday day? Going to a cozy cabin or backcountry hut (I’ve never actually done this, but it’s on my bucket list).

How would it start? It would begin with a lazy morning having breakfast in our PJs.

Then what? We would go outside and spend the day skiing or snowshoeing in the mountains.

What would you do in the evening? For dinner we would have some kind of comfort food, since we earned it skiing all day. And after we would get a fire going and have some drinks and play cards.
 

What is your idea of a perfect holiday day? My perfect holiday would be spent with my partner Kyle, Miso (our cat) and Kerbie (our dog) in the mountains, being cozy by a fire. Just us, no family.

How would it start? Wake up, make myself a nice cup of coffee and read by the fire. 

Then what? I would probably go to a local market or the letter-press workshop in Fernie, B.C., while my husband went snowboarding. We’d meet for a cozy dinner and then go home, play video games next to one another with the fireplace on.   

If you’re sticking around the city, would you do? I’m big on breakfast, so we’d go to OEB diner, or for dim sum, or for ramen at Muku. 

What would you do in the evening? Probably go for a Peking duck dinner and ice cream, then we’d head home for a cozy night playing games, watching movies or maybe I’d some freelance work and make art. 
 

What is your idea of a perfect holiday day? I’d spend a day with friends and family in my hometown of Souris, Man.

How would it start? Wake up and meditate; have a coffee with my dad while looking at the Canadian Tire flyer.

Then what? I’d go for a short jog in the minus-20-degree weather (or colder) while listening to a podcast, ending up at my friend Kate’s house to have a cup of tea. 

What would you do for dinner? Head back to my parents’ and open a bottle of red wine with my mom. Ideally, my husband, brother and sister in-law would be there, too. In the oven would be my mom’s homemade mac and cheese dish. Dessert would be a tray of dainties (Google “dainties” if you’re not from the prairies and don’t know what a dainty is). 

And after . . .  I’d go back to Kate’s house. My other best friend since childhood, Kirsten, would be there with her husband. We’d chat, have some cocktails and then walk over to the local community hall to attend a traditional “Manitoba Social.”