V Day, fun and woes

We decided to decorate a little more than usual for Valentine's Day this year.  We put red ribbons around the front light post and the columns on our porch.  We wrapped a red garland and pink lights around the lamp post, and hung red sparkly ornaments in our little tree.  Only one other crazy family put up any form of Valentine's decorations in our neighborhood.  This helped to keep us in a Valentine's mood, and boy did I need help!

I just think the day has become a little overdone, shall we say.  Shouldn't Valentine's Day be mostly about your significant other in your life?  Throughout the week before the actual day, I had Gabriel make a card for his teacher, my Uncle Dave who was in the hospital at the time, his cousins and his dad.  We made the requisite Valentine's Box to hold all of his cards.  We also made cookies and were going to ice and decorate them for the neighbors, but we just ran out of time.  The day before I made Gabriel sign all 21 of his cards himself, but then taped the chocolate hearts to each card.  (Did you know that you can't get away with just giving people a card these days? ) After they went to bed, I got Joel's 12 ready, and taped a lollipop to each one.  I'm sure many, many moms (and dads for that matter) were doing the same thing I was that night.


When we were getting everyone ready to go the next morning, Jav asked me if I'd had a chance to get Gabriel to make a valentine for his mom.  I sort of lost it.  Well, not sort of.  I went on a 10-minute rant about all the stuff we HAD done and why I didn't think grandparents needed to get cards too.  But in reality, I felt bad that I didn't even think of it.  The boys always get cards and little presents or candy from their grandparents, and from Tia Sandie, and from the neighbors.  But I could literally work for the entire week before the holiday and still not cover everyone.  People, do you not realize that Hallmark and Whitman's have us all eating out of their hands?  As Jeff Bridges so eloquently says in "The Big Lebowski", "This aggression will not stand, man."  I refuse to let any holiday run my life.

Jav and I got over our Valentine's morning "discussion".  When I got home from work, I found a beautiful bouquet of daisies and tiny red roses, and some great cards.  We went out on our Valentine's date the following Saturday, with Tia Sandie and Michael coming to watch the boys.  We went to see "Argo" at the Angelika, and even though that movie's been out for a LONG time, we were shocked that there was not an empty seat in the theater.  It is really good.  It reminded us of "Apollo 13", in that even though we knew the outcome of the story, it was still a fascinating story to tell, and extremely suspenseful.  My stomach hurt after it was over, just from holding myself so tightly all through the last hour.  After the movie we went to eat dinner at Kuby's Sausage Haus, which is part German meat market and deli, part restaurant.  Jav's sister had been telling him it was really good for YEARS, and she was right.  There was an accordion player which added just enough ambiance to the room.  And the look of the meat market brought to mind the pictures I have of my great grandfather, who was a butcher in Fredericksburg.  It was a very fun night.

I threw away most of the candy the boys brought home, only keeping the chocolate.  Every once in awhile I let them have a piece after dinner.  I bought a few more sparkly red foil hearts to hang up somewhere next year.  Maybe I'll start having the boys make cards at the beginning of February to get everyone this time.  Or maybe I'll really rebel and just have the boys hand out Valentine's with no candy.

Aggression.  Won't.   Stand.    Man.