Valentines
We had a lovely snowed in Valentines Day. No School! Hooray! So, we were able to relax and make pink heart shaped pancakes for the kids for breakfast. And, I gave them their knitted snakes that I finally finished. Ro decided his snake needed to join him for breakfast. We also had a fancy Valentine lunch with heart shaped sandwiches and stained glass window heart cookies. Then, we decorated cookies with gobs of icing and a variety of sprinkles. You can't put too many sprinkles on a cookie.
Ro had his school Valentine party on Thursday. As usual, he had the only homemade valentine - some very nifty rockets. Some kids saw him putting his valentine rockets in their mail boxes on Tuesday and were very intrigued. When Ro got home from school, we went through his mailbox. He had some marginal interest in the candy but he barely acknowledged the valentines. Not that I blame him. Commercial valentines pretty much suck. They are designed to go straight into the landfill. I don't even know if you can buy nice valentines anymore. I didn't see any. The whole significance of exchanging valentines is lost when you're exchanging generic bits of trash. I doubt any of the kids cared about them anymore than Roen. They weren't even fun to look at since a modern valentine consists of a folded movie ticket with Scooby-Doo or some other wretched character on it.
Commmercial valentines are also too gender specific. Ro was appalled to receive Dora and Bratz valentines from some of the girls in his class. You really need to buy two packs of Valentines now. Batman for the boys and Dora for the girls. I think Ro was appalled because he's worried the girls thought he was a girl or something. He was very adamant that he wanted nothing to do with dolls or Bratz. It was kind of amusing really. I remember buying valentines when I was little but they were more unisex and I spent time trying to figure out which one best suited a particular friend. Plus they had envelopes, so they seemed more substantial.
Holidays used to be about bringing family and community together with traditions that comforted, nurtured and entertained children. Now, they're about marketing the latest TV character (in the cheapest way possible)... and that's about it as far as I can tell. I was really glad that it snowed and that we got to have a real Valentines Day at home.
Ro had his school Valentine party on Thursday. As usual, he had the only homemade valentine - some very nifty rockets. Some kids saw him putting his valentine rockets in their mail boxes on Tuesday and were very intrigued. When Ro got home from school, we went through his mailbox. He had some marginal interest in the candy but he barely acknowledged the valentines. Not that I blame him. Commercial valentines pretty much suck. They are designed to go straight into the landfill. I don't even know if you can buy nice valentines anymore. I didn't see any. The whole significance of exchanging valentines is lost when you're exchanging generic bits of trash. I doubt any of the kids cared about them anymore than Roen. They weren't even fun to look at since a modern valentine consists of a folded movie ticket with Scooby-Doo or some other wretched character on it.
Commmercial valentines are also too gender specific. Ro was appalled to receive Dora and Bratz valentines from some of the girls in his class. You really need to buy two packs of Valentines now. Batman for the boys and Dora for the girls. I think Ro was appalled because he's worried the girls thought he was a girl or something. He was very adamant that he wanted nothing to do with dolls or Bratz. It was kind of amusing really. I remember buying valentines when I was little but they were more unisex and I spent time trying to figure out which one best suited a particular friend. Plus they had envelopes, so they seemed more substantial.
Holidays used to be about bringing family and community together with traditions that comforted, nurtured and entertained children. Now, they're about marketing the latest TV character (in the cheapest way possible)... and that's about it as far as I can tell. I was really glad that it snowed and that we got to have a real Valentines Day at home.