Valentine's Day The Franco Way

So after being married for over 7 years you get a good idea what to expect on any given holiday, but not this holiday. See's Candy is so genius that they send us a catalog weeks in advance of Valentine's Day. The best part of this awesome catalog is in the very back they have a do-it-yourself sampling of all the wonderful little yummies. So this year I snagged that catalog and found the best working pen I could and set to work. Once Jack realized what I was doing, he too found a writing utensil. I circled each of the candies that I wanted to eat come Valentine’s Day. I even put stars next to a couple of them; the ones that would take me about 10 minutes to eat each one, savoring each tiny morsel. Meanwhile, Jack circled pretty much everything in the entire catalog. He even made a point to show Jason when he got home what we had done. My husband is the best... he took the catalog to work with him the next day, goes online and orders up some of the circled items. Apparently he was pretty proud of himself that day because he didn't exactly keep it a secret that he ordered some chocolates. As he is totally screwing with me by telling me that he didn't order the ones that I wanted, I ask him if he ordered the ones with the stars. He says, "what stars?" It took me a while to figure out that he wasn't just messing with me, he didn't notice the stars. Goober. But in his infinite wisdom he new that I had circled waaaaay too many chocolates to fit in one box... so he orders 2! That's right, he was so smart he ordered 2! Love him! It worked out quite well since both boxes arrived a week before v-day. They came and I just had a feeling that I'd finish both boxes before the actual holiday. I did finish one box, with the small help from Jason, by the time Saturday came around. But there was still about ¾ of the second box remaining. Ah, but the story continues...

Valentines Day was on a Saturday this year. The Thursday before Jason's parents call and invite themselves over for the holiday. Really? They sugar coat the invasion by offering to watch Jack while Jason and I can go out on a date. Hmm, sounds like a great idea right, no.

I wake up with a huge headache Saturday morning and I wait until 30 minutes before his parents arrive to start cleaning up. But, luckily for me they roll up 30 minutes late. Right was they walk in, I am currently on the floor (in my robe, by the way) cleaning spots in the carpet with my hot water and folex. Dad proceeds to walk into the house with squished berries stuck on the bottom of his shoes. I follow him around to 4 different spots and clean as I go. He did take his shoes off later, after he asked me what I was doing. Awesome.

As I said before, once you've been married for 7 years the thought of doing anything big for Valentine's Day seems a bit moot and too expensive. I had my See’s and I made Jason some heart shaped snicker doodles. (they're his favorite AND they were cute) So where to go and what to do? Now we had the option of somewhere to go out while Jack stayed home with mom and dad. But when they showed up they hadn’t eaten lunch so we end up going out to lunch with them to Chili’s. I had a nice big margarita! It went well with my motrins I had taken earlier for my headache. It was very nice of Dad to pay for lunch. Thanks Dad.

We get back to the house, they set up their air mattress and they both decide they need a nap. I play my little game on my laptop while the two of them snore for at least an hour. That afternoon Jason and I decided that we would go and see a movie. We went and saw He’s Just Not that Into You. (cute movie) Of course Jack cried when I told him he’d have to stay home with Nana and Grandpa. He was a bit sick earlier, so that didn’t help. The movie was great. It even had those cute follow-ups to the characters that I like to see at the end of movies. But to my dismay as soon as the credits start running, Jason practically ran out the door. In his defense, I had gotten up first because the theater was totally packed. (a chick flick movie on valentines day, on a Saturday, duh) I tried pulling on him twice so that we could stay and watch the end of the movie, but he kept going. Oh well. I already put it on my blockbuster list.

We stop by the grocery store on our way home to get stuff for dinner. It seems weird now that I write it, but for some reason it didn’t at the time. We were going to make a fancy steak dinner for his parents. Not exactly what I had imaged would happen on any Valentine’s Day. We get back and no one is hungry. They played dominos with Jason while I entertained myself by doing the dishes and making cupcakes. I ended up having cottage cheese for dinner while we heated up some taquitos for the parents.

We all go to bed and Jason and I get situated upstairs. We had our laptops, snacks, water, we were ready for the long haul when I started hearing an alarm. I went downstairs to investigate, only to once reaching the bottom stair, the alarm would stop. TWICE! WTF! Mom and Dad are both sound asleep and are oblivious to any noise whatsoever. I say screw-it to the alarm and chock it up to something that doesn’t belong to me, therefore, not my problem. I just have to figure out how to sleep through it, because it kept going off every 2 minutes. So I go upstairs to get back to some alone time with Jason and I hear something else that is disturbing. Jack was coughing. I go in to check on him and he gets “sick” in his bed. Awesome. Jason was there to help get the bucket and took his comforter downstairs. We even got his air mattress and set it up for him in our room. It was a nice thought, but of course he ended up sleeping with us the entire night. I had a wonderful night’s sleep filled with knees, elbows, alarms, and occasionally an arm across my face. It was the best valentines ever!

Oh but wait, there is a follow-up to this story too…

It wasn’t until Tuesday that I went and found my last box of See’s candy. The one filled with all the “star” chocolates… I picked it up and noticed that it was a lot lighter then I remember. The memory flashed in my head of mom walking out of the kitchen nibbling on something chocolate. I can even somehow remember crumbs falling on the floor as she walked. It’s amazing the details that you can remember when you are under stress. All I could think of was how I so hoped it was Jason that had attacked my box. But if you know my husband, you’d know it wasn’t him. I opened the lid to find FOUR pieces left!! I asked Jason, just to make sure, but he confirmed my suspicions. He felt bad that his parents had eaten the one and only gift that I had received (or wanted for that matter) so he offered to order me a new box… but then I felt guilty. If it wasn’t for the fact that his parents constantly talk about how healthy they eat at home, I might not mind…

It wasn’t until I wrote all this out that I realized how odd my holiday was. It was a lot of little things that once compounded makes for a bizarre day. I hope my day somehow helps make your day just that much more special.