What Valentine's Day Really Looks Like

I have a confession to make.

I don't really like Valentine's Day.

I know, I know. What's not to like? Flowers. Chocolate. Jewelry. Pink and Red. It's all right up my alley. Except that I don't like Valentine's Day.

To me, it seems like it sneaks up on me every year, it's just one day, and it feels like we have to jam all the festivities into one 24-hour period. It's exhausting. Plus, I'm not a romantic so most of the stuff people usually do to celebrate the holiday seem contrived and trite. It's just not my holiday.

I think this little conversation I had with Eli on Sunday sums up my feelings about this particular day.

Eli: "What are we going to do on our day off on Tuesday for Valentine's Day?
Me: "We don't get Valentine's Day off. You still have to go to school."
Eli: "WHAT?! But it's a holiday! Valentine's Day must not be very important if we don't get to miss school!"

My sentiments exactly.

I figured I walk you through a typical Valentine's Day around these parts. Maybe you'll see why I find it so stressful!

5:20AM My alarm goes off. I hit the snooze button.

5:30-6:20AM My alarm goes off again. This time I get up, take a shower, get dressed, and ice the donuts I had baked the night before.

These were heavenly. I'll post the recipe later this week. :)

6:20AM Turn on the kids lights. They like to have a little time to "wake up" and this way, I don't have to yell at them to get moving over and over again. Start the sausage in the skillet on the stove.

6:30AM-6:45 Make the kids are up and moving. Both of them get dressed, make beds, and brush teeth before they head down to breakfast. Usually this takes a bit of cajoling, but his morning they had a special Valentine's Day treat waiting for them so they moved a little faster.

These weren't anything special...mostly little toys I had picked up in the clearance section at Target after Christmas. But I'm a firm believer in the packaging makes a present so these had a lot of bang for my buck.

6:45-7:30AM We eat breakfast, open our gifts, and then there's a little time to play before Eli heads out the door for school at 7:30. We carpool with the neighbors and it was not my day to drive (yay!).

7:30-8:10AM I help Phoebe finish getting ready for school. This includes fixing her hair, finding her shoes, assuring her that she would, in fact, be wearing the hat I had bought her, and taking some photos of her in her Valentine tea finery. Here's a preview.

8:10-9:20AM Chore Time! Clean the kitchen (including sweep), check emails, dust, call about Eli's baseball sign-ups, and order stickers for Phoebe's party. Leave for Bible Study at 9:20.

9:45-11:15AM Bible Study. We're (slowly) working our way through THIS book. Loving it. Loving the ladies I'm on this journey with. Not loving the ugly parts of my heart it's revealing.

11:15-11:30AM Help set up for the Valentine Tea.

11:3-12:30PM Phoebe's Valentine Tea. It dawned on me while I was there that this was my last KU Valentine Tea after attending every year for the last 8 years. I think it was supposed to make me kind of sad and sentimental, but it really didn't. Sometimes I think there's something wrong with me.

Phoebe and her buddies, Cade and Ellie.

Phoebe and her friend, Chloe.

A family photo. Isn't Brad a good dad for wearing a red shirt? :)

12:30-1:30PM At this point, I have an hour before I need to pick up the pizza for Eli's Valentine party at school. I grab a quick taco at TANGO'S TACOS with Brad and Phoebe. Oh my heavens, I love this place! If you live and Amarillo (not sure if it's a chain) and you haven't tried it, you are missing out! Go there today. After Tango's, we make a quick stop at Sonic for a large Diet Coke with lime and extra ice and a small Sprite for Phoebe and head to get the pizza at Dominoes.

1:30-2:00PM The pizza wasn't quite ready so I have to wait a few minutes (the guy totally didn't understand that today was timed down to the minute and I only had a very short period time in which to pick up the pizza and head to the absolute farthest point from this location before hitting the state line to make it to the elementary. At this point I wonder why I ordered from this location and then make a mad dash to school.

2:00-3:00PM Eli's Valentine Party. It's a crazy time. The other room mom planned this whole party (it was awesome) since I was out of commission for two weeks. She called it "Grider Town" and each station was a part of the town. There was the "coffee shop" with hot chocolate and a chocolate fountain. I manned the "pizzeria" with my pizza. There was the "bakery" where the kids decorated cookies, the "art gallery" where they made handprint hearts, the "tattoo parlor" where they applied temporary, Valentine tattoos, the "doctor's office" where there was a giant "Alien Operation" game (I have no idea where that came from!), and the "Photo Shop" where they made foam shapes for the class photo another mom had taken last week. Like I said, it was a-MAZ-ing!

Eli and his silly friend, Cooper.

The photo of my children together I took the entire day. Epic Mommy Fail.

3:00-3:45PM Help the other moms clean up the party. Bring home an entire pepperoni pizza after trying to pawn it off on several other moms. At least we have dinner for Thursday night.

4:00-5:15PM Finally make it home. At this point I realize that my Stay-At-Home-Mom where I actually stay at home have probably come to an end. I spend a moment (a really brief one) missing the days when my children were very small and we didn't leave the house for a few days at a time because we didn't need to. Change into yoga pants and a tee shirt because I'm all fancy like that. Decide that Eli doesn't have to practice his spelling words because, as he stated, it's a holiday and it should feel like one, and let him go run his mile. He's training for a 5K in April...more on that later. Unload the car and try to covertly throw away all the Valentine crap treats the kiddos got at their parties. This only works so well. I decide to sit down for a moment to look through the COUNTRY LIVING that came in the mail and I may or may not have dozed off for a minute.

5:15-6:30PM Brad comes home and we start our traditional Valentine's Day Dinner: Fajitas and Fondue. Brad makes the best fajitas so he does most of the work. I mostly set the table with our hokey Valentine tablecloth, candles, and wine goblets and help the kids clean up the playroom and finish their chores.

Every year I think we made a terrible choice in starting this candlelight dinner tradition. It's so much work! But then I see Phoebe's face when she sees it and hear her cry, "This is so exciting!" and hear Eli making plans to start a restaurant that serves "fancy fajitas" served on tables with candles and I realize that this is why I do it.

I didn't serve anything fancy in my wine goblets, just plain ole' pink lemonade, but they loved it. They thought they were so big. And Phoebe didn't spill it!! Wonders never cease!

6:30-7:00PM Fondue Time! I didn't drag out the fondue pot this year, (I was too lazy) but just melted chocolate chips and evaporated milk in a bowl in the microwave. But look at all the yummy stuff we ate with it!

Phoebe finds this spectacular. She loves chocolate dipped strawberries and I think she ate her weight in them.

It apparently causes her to be silly because she just got gigglier and gigglier. (Is that even a word?)

7:00-8:15PM I crashed on the couch (because I was exhausted) while Brad cleaned the kitchen, got the kids in and out of the bath, read to/with them, and got them in bed. Best. Valentine. Gift. Ever. Really, I'm pretty blessed.

8:30PM Kids are in bed so I head to bed myself with intentions of posting this blog and catching up on EATING AT THE TAJ MCCALL blog.

9:00PM Fall asleep. Romantic, right?


So that's my Valentine's Day. I'm pretty sure it doesn't look any different than anybody else's, and deep down I'm not sure it isn't what it's supposed to look like. I can only hope that I somewhere in all this busyness, I showed my children and my husband that I love and cherish them more than they can imagine.

And maybe that's what this day really means.

I guess it's not so bad after all.


* New recipes up over at Eating At The Taj McCall. You can find them HERE and HERE.