Valentine's Day? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Valentine's Day!

That is, Steve and I have mutually decided not to exchange Valentine's day gifts/cards. We've decided to hold out for Inappropriate Card Day instead, which apparently is February 26th.

I've always thought that Valentine's day was kind of stupid. There was a story on Yahoo! this morning that said that Americans spend some ridiculous amount of money on Valentine's day every year, like $7.8 billion. Ok, maybe not, but really, it was some crazy figure. I mean really...we JUST HAD CHRISTMAS, people!! I know not everyone celebrates Christmas, but we do, and we just had the annual bank account-draining, gift-giving extravaganza barely six weeks ago, as I'm sure a lot of you did too.

Candy at Halloween, then all through the Christmas season, then more candy for Valentine's day, and then in just a few more weeks, here comes Easter! I'm not sure whether these holidays are sponsored by Russell Stover, Hallmark, or your local dentist, but I think they're all making out pretty well.

Even though I am a big pooh-pooher (yes, that's really a word) of Valentine's day, I still helped Danni put together a gift for her boyfriend. She gave him a surfer guy-type bracelet, (think Hollister, except I think it was Anchor Blue. There was a sale.) a bag of chocolate hearts, and a DVD of the movie "John Tucker Must Die." Now before you go thinking that's not romantic, (the movie, I mean), she wanted to give it to him because it was the first movie they ever saw together. Awwwwwww.

So this morning, I'm pulling on some sweats and slippers at 6:55am to drive Danni to school. Well, technically, she drives me there, and then I drive home. Anyway, at 7am, I hear this very faint little tap from outside that might have been someone knocking on the door, but also might have been the wind. Then again, a little louder. I looked out the peephole, and could tell there was someone standing off to the right, but with the light at 7am I couldn't tell who it was. I had the latch on and opened the door just a crack, and saw that it was T, Danni's boyfriend. We had no idea he was coming over. He did this to my front door:

Sweet, right? And he gave her some chocolate and a little heart-shaped locket/necklace. She could have ridden to school with them, but no, she still wanted to drive. So we leave for school. When we get there, a lot of the kids getting out of their cars are holding red heart-shaped balloons, carrying flowers, gifts, etc. I saw this one guy that had flowers, candy, and balloons, presumably for his girlfriend. I mean, the campus was just awash in red and pink.

This is all very nice and cute and sweet for those that have boyfriends/girlfriends, but it always reminds me of how badly it makes everyone else feel. Probably because I was one of those girls in high school who didn't have a boyfriend, and I always felt like such a loser on Valentine's day. Maybe this is why I've always hated it, because I learned to hate it when I was a teenager. After being married 16 years, it still doesn't make much sense to me.

I had the following conversation with Kylie yesterday, after her PreK class had their Valentine's party:

"Mommy, I want to get you a present for Valentine's."

"Sweetie, you know what? The best present you could give me is to clean up your toys, not fight with your sisters, and listen when Daddy and I tell you something."

"Hmmmph. That's not a REAL present!"

Oh yes it is, baby...better than all the chocolate in the world.

She was also upset this morning that T didn't give her anything for Valentine's day.

"But Ky, T is Danni's boyfriend, not yours."

"Grant is my boyfriend!"

"True, but you got a Valentine yesterday from him at school. Plus, you got the little pink pail with the Littlest Pet Shop notebook and pens and Hershey kisses in it from Daddy and me."

Also, since Grant is only four, I'm not sure his mom would be up to decorating our front door at 7am for his "girlfriend." Any poor kid that ever dates Kylie is going to have a lot to live up to. She's going to think all guys are as sweet and thoughtful as T is to her big sister. And you know what? They should be.