Wow, World Monkey day is just days away, on Tuesday, December 14th! I don’t know why, but whenever I’m on my torch making a Monkey GlassSipper reusable glass drinking straw I have a smile on my face. When I see the monkey coming to life on the glass straw looking up at me with his goofy grin and his cherry-red tongue hanging down I can’t help but grin right back at him. There’s just something about monkeys that always puts me in a happy, fun-loving, slightly crazy kind of mood. And I don’t think I’m alone. 

It’s no wonder that even the most serious institutions take a light-hearted approach to World Monkey Day. A 2014 National Geographic article in celebration of World Monkey Day includeda collection of 16 super-cute and quite hilarious photos of monkeys in the wild. 

In previous Monkey Day greetings, the Greenpeace website proclaimed, “Monkey Day is the perfect time to swing into action and help protect primate habitat by becoming a forest defender.” Greenpeace also noted that, “it’s the one day wheremonkey business is enthusiastically encouraged!”  A 2016 article in the Washington Post gave the following advice on how to celebrate World Monkey Day: 

Learn something about these adorable and highly intelligent primates. Or you could use this day to act like a monkey - but we must warn you that, even on this day, jumping on the bed is a risky business. 

Monkeys have also permeated the English language with a monkey troop of fun and funny expressions. Sometimes I don’t even realize I’m using monkey expressions. I suppose they’re so common that for me, well,monkey see, monkey do.

Which reminds me, we’re going on a family ski-road trip to the Canadian Rocky Mountains in a few days and I need to have mygrease monkey check out our car before we leave. Whenever I bring my car in he’s on itlike stink on a monkey. I’m always happy to pay a little extra for a good mechanic. As I wise man once said -if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. The last thing we need is to have our car break down in a blizzard on a mountain highway where it’ll be cold enough tofreeze the tail off a brass monkey. But before we go I’m determined to get all my Christmas GlassSipper glass straw orders out to you. Nothing personal, but it’ll sure be great toget that monkey off my back. 

What I most look forward to about our family ski road trip, even more than the skiing, is the family time together. Now that my two sons are older teenagers they’re getting along much better and, thankfully, I won't need to playmonkey in the middle quite as much. When the boys were younger they would always bemaking a monkey out of each other and constantlygetting each other’s monkey up. Now, I’m sure they’ll have no time tomonkey around in the back seat. They’ll be too busy watching all the movies and TV series they’ve downloaded onto their computers, includingMonkey Business by the Marx Brothers,12 Monkeys with Brad Pitt and, of course, all 58 episodes ofThe Monkees. I, for one, also look forward to some quiet time on those particularly snowy days when my boys are off skiing and I can curl up in front of the fire and catch up on my reading; first on my list isMonkey Beach by BC indigenous writer Eden Robinson. 

Actually, my biggest concerns about the ski road trip are the roads themselves. As you probably know, heavy rains washed out the main highways in the BC interior in mid-November and are still limited to essential traffic. That couldthrow a monkey wrench into our road-trip plans and force us to travel through the US, adding hours of driving to our trip. Then again, that’s something that we have no control over so there’s no point in getting all stressed outlike a monkey on a stick. I’m hoping that the BC highways are fully open by the time we head out, but I’ll bemonkey’s uncle if that actually happens. 

Fortunately, my husband Fred has lots of experience with organizing all our road-trip gear and ski equipment and packing up the car. And I’m very happy to leave all that to him. After all,a monkey knows what tree to climb. Fred’s also responsible for putting together our road-trip song list. No doubt he’ll include all our family favourites:

Monkey Man by Toots and the Maytals 

Punish The Monkey by Mark Knopfler

Part Man, Part Monkey by Bruce Springsteen 

Leave My Monkey Alone by Warren Zevon

Monkey Man by the Rolling Stones 

Shock The Monkey by Peter Gabriel 

Too Much Monkey Business by Chuck Berry 

also covered by the Beatlesand Elvis 

Tweeter And The Monkey Man by The Traveling Wilburys 

Monkey by Harry Belfonte

Everyone’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey by the Beatles 

and, of course, our all time favouriteHey Hey We’re The Monkees 

All monkeying aside, it’s amazing how much monkeys have permeated our culture. I’m guessing it’s probably because humans and monkeys have so much in common. And because monkeys are so darn cute and entertaining. To celebrate our close cousins the monkeys on World Monkey Day we’ve got a lot to choose from, all the way from a bevy of English expressions, to music, literature, cinema, and television. No need to put on amonkey suit. Just grab your favourite monkey novel, put on your favourite monkey song and, most important of all, be sure to havemore fun than a barrel full of monkeys (while sipping from your !).