My mother says you can choose to have a happy heart, though, so that's what I'm attempting to do here, okay Internet? (Still that echo, even after six months. You'd think I'd mind, and yet, not so much.)
Okay.
Being completely and utterly lame, Eric and I usually don't do anything for Valentine's Day. Well, sometimes we attempt to go out to dinner, I guess, although we don't really care if it's the day or not. Let's face it: We're never going to top Proposal Valentine's Day 1995, so really, the pressure is off.
But anyway, Abby had a basketball game at 5 p.m. on Valentine's Day, and we knew that even a "sit around the dinner table over a special meal and open Valentines" with the girls wasn't going to happen. So on Sunday, we surprised them. It was really pretty epic, now that I think about it, and totally unlike us in that we made an actual effort.
The girls got ice cream gift certificates for Christmas from my in-laws, and they were in the mood to use them up. We sort of put them off for a while, and then, right before dinnertime, we're all like, you know, we're actually not hungry for dinner just yet, so let's go get that ice cream. We can eat later. And the girls were like, really?
But they didn't question our insanity.
The ice cream parlor is in the middle of an open-air mall (or as close to a mall as our town is ever gonna see), and right next door? Abby's favorite pizza parlor. Wow, there's a lot of parlors going on, aren't there? I'd go grab a thesaurus, but I'm too lazy.
So we're walking in the general direction of the ice cream parlor and Abby's like, I wish we could get pizza. But not in a whiny "hey, I want pizza!" kind of way, because she might be 12 and angsty, but she's not a brat. Plus, she's used to our lameness and doesn't even question it anymore. I had Johanna's hand, and I walked into the pizza place without a backwards glance. Abby thought I'd just made a mistake at first, until Eric and I were all like, Happy Valentine's Day! Surprise! and the girls were like, no kidding? Thank you!
I realize it's sad that our kids are so downtrodden that this sort of thing is a surprise and a treat. I suppose they're not too worse for wear, all things considered.
I totally brought the camera to document the awesome. I think this one of Jo really represents our time together as a family:
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| The good news: We survived. |
After pizza came ice cream. Which I could not eat, but hey, it's not like I thought I could and then was disappointed. It was really cool, though--self serve, and then you pick from a crazy-big variety of toppings. Johanna got chocolate with sprinkles. Abby got chocolate with M&Ms, crushed cookies, hot fudge, hot caramel, sprinkles, strawberries and chocolate chips. And I can't remember what Eric got because I'd just discovered the mini fireplace they had plugged into the wall and it reminded me of the one my grandparents have in their living room.
So that was how we celebrated Valentine's Day this year. It was quite pleasant.
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| You can't tell, but Abby is ELATED. |
On Actual Valentine's Day, we watched Abby's team win 34-11 against a local middle school. Um, it was sort of nuts, especially since the girls have lost their last four games by rather large margins. Abby ended up popping her knee out a little in a jump ball-dog pile, so she was out for part of the last quarter. It was cute because one of her teammates got her an ice pack before I could get out of my seat to assess the damage. Abby was like, is this the sort of dry ice you're not supposed to put on skin? And I was like, are you kidding me? PUT THAT ON YOUR KNEE.
She's sore this morning, by the way, and limping a bit, but wow, that could have been bad--Dad offered his crutches from his basketball days, and I was thinking we'd probably have to take him up on that. But no. Thank heavens.
And then we came home, and opened Valentines from my parents (Mom saved ALL of the cards I ever received, so she gave everyone a recycled Valentine. Mine was from my first Valentine's Day from Aunt Ann and Uncle Mark. That was kind of sweet, if you want to know the truth, although I'm pretty sure Mark wasn't the one who picked out the Raggedy Ann card) and had dinner (hamburgers and fries I'd made before work) and then Eric and the girls started looking through his high school scrapbook (that was a riot, for multiple reasons) while I played the Sims.
Oh, and apparently they'd exchanged Valentines during Johanna's after-school care program. I learned this when Johanna brought out a second envelope stuffed with cards and candy that evening. I was like, I didn't know you were going to do that! and Jo was all, yeah, me neither. Oops. Just when you think I can't possibly get lamer, BAM! What do these people expect me to do, go through my kid's backpack? Totally unreasonable.
I have more to say, but I think this is long enough, plus I'm running out of time--I need to get ready for work. Which reminds me, I had to fill out a self-evaluation form last week because I've been working there for a year (on Feb. 21... time goes fast) and that about killed me. I'm a good worker, I know that, and I'm also sort of awesome, but not completely awesome, so how do you rate that? Anyway, I'm supposed to go over it with the Publisher... but he's been gone the past few days, so maybe today is the day I get to sit through an awkward meeting discussing why I gave myself 3.5s instead of 4s? Here's hoping.
Coldplay, Paradise. I saw them perform this on the Grammys and immediately downloaded it. No joke. It's just lovely, that's why.
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