![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Happy Valentine's Day, kind of.
Feb. 14th, 2005 02:43 pmValentine's Day might be the one day in the year where I feel like flying back to France and going all French again.
Oh, we celebrate it too, and the shops are just as red-and-pink-with-big-hearts, only it's strictly "La fête des Amoureux", The Lovers' Day; it's a very private affair. So either you have a significant other, and you go out with him/her (romantic dinner is a must, and maybe a little present, but frankly, forget about the card unless you are too far away to spend the day with your loved one); or you don't, so you grumble in the shops and discreetly kick the Great Big Fluffy Hearts, and ignore the blasted thing altogether.
No-one expects you to make cards for all your friends/parents/siblings/aunts/cousins to the nth degree.
No teacher in his/her right mind will send you a list of all the kids in your child's class, as a kind request to please make a valentine for each and every child in the class, thank you very much. 26 kids? What do you mean, 26 kids? Do I have 26 cards to make? Ah, only 25, because Froglet is included. Oh, no, wait, her teacher! Can't forget her teacher! 26 cards it is.
26 cards it was.
I spent several hours sitting by Froglet, who insisted on making all her Valentines herself, and wrote on each single one Joyeuse St Valentin (and her name, and the recipient's name, and decorated with glitter glue and stickers) with painstaking concentration ("is that right? Do I start the next letter here?" "I don't know, sweetie, I can't see, your hair/hand is in the way"). Tadpole shrieked in frustration, as she had only 14 Valentines to make (!) and simply scribbled the first letter of her name on them, and added a little glitter glue, and thus was done in no time and thought it was MOST UNFAIR that her sister spent so much more time on her Valentines.
And I giggle to myself as I remember my American friend whose nanny abruptly resigned because she had gotten a valentine from her tiny charge (my friend's son, 3 and something), and was most shocked that the little tike was "in love with her". Heh. Talking about Culture Shock. :D
Ah Well. Happy Valentine's Day, dear friends. *HUGS*
ETA and then of course, today was the day Froglet chose to not like her dessert and throw it into her backpack, which she then proceeded to treat as usual (read: jump on it/fall on it/beat the wall with it).
Yogourt-covered valentines, anyone?
Ew.
Oh, we celebrate it too, and the shops are just as red-and-pink-with-big-hearts, only it's strictly "La fête des Amoureux", The Lovers' Day; it's a very private affair. So either you have a significant other, and you go out with him/her (romantic dinner is a must, and maybe a little present, but frankly, forget about the card unless you are too far away to spend the day with your loved one); or you don't, so you grumble in the shops and discreetly kick the Great Big Fluffy Hearts, and ignore the blasted thing altogether.
No-one expects you to make cards for all your friends/parents/siblings/aunts/cousins to the nth degree.
No teacher in his/her right mind will send you a list of all the kids in your child's class, as a kind request to please make a valentine for each and every child in the class, thank you very much. 26 kids? What do you mean, 26 kids? Do I have 26 cards to make? Ah, only 25, because Froglet is included. Oh, no, wait, her teacher! Can't forget her teacher! 26 cards it is.
26 cards it was.
I spent several hours sitting by Froglet, who insisted on making all her Valentines herself, and wrote on each single one Joyeuse St Valentin (and her name, and the recipient's name, and decorated with glitter glue and stickers) with painstaking concentration ("is that right? Do I start the next letter here?" "I don't know, sweetie, I can't see, your hair/hand is in the way"). Tadpole shrieked in frustration, as she had only 14 Valentines to make (!) and simply scribbled the first letter of her name on them, and added a little glitter glue, and thus was done in no time and thought it was MOST UNFAIR that her sister spent so much more time on her Valentines.
And I giggle to myself as I remember my American friend whose nanny abruptly resigned because she had gotten a valentine from her tiny charge (my friend's son, 3 and something), and was most shocked that the little tike was "in love with her". Heh. Talking about Culture Shock. :D
Ah Well. Happy Valentine's Day, dear friends. *HUGS*
ETA and then of course, today was the day Froglet chose to not like her dessert and throw it into her backpack, which she then proceeded to treat as usual (read: jump on it/fall on it/beat the wall with it).
Yogourt-covered valentines, anyone?
Ew.
