Posted: 3:38 PM Feb 29, 2012
Reporter: Kylie Dixon

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DENISON, TX-- Every four years, we get one extra day on the calendar during the month of February.

Instead of 28 days, in a leap year, February has 29.That makes today extra special for one Denison teenager, Taylor Lester.

"Today is February 29th, leap day, and it's also my 16th birthday."

She was born on February 29th, 1996.

But, since there have only been four February 29ths since she was born, today was only the 4th time Taylor has been able to celebrate her birthday on the actual date.

Lester said she appreciates her birthday even more since she doesn't get to actually have a birth-day every year. But that doesn't stop her from celebrating.

"We celebrate my birthday, when it's not on a leap day, for the entire week. Because my mom doesn't really know when my birthday is so, we do it on the 28th because it's the last day of February and the 1st because it's the day after the 28th. Because we don't really know when it would be," Lester explained.

Leap year was created because the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun is slightly more than 365 days. So every four years- one extra day is added to the calendar.

Without the extra days, our calendar would be off by two and a half days, every ten years.

Denison resident, Matthew Garner, said, "I didn't even know that it was a leap day today."

While many people don't give leap year a second thought, many others look forward to it. Some of its wacky traditions, like woman asking men to marry them.

"I'm going to ask my husband to marry me again," Marla Heath joked.

I asked, "Now that you know it's leap day, do you know any cool facts about it?"

Garner said, "No, I actually don't even know what leap day is."

The birthday girl doesn't know what traditions go along with leap day, but she does know she couldn't ask for a better 16th birthday present.

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