Happy Bloody Valentine's Day

I love Australians. I love their skepticism and their reluctance to jump whole heartedly into silly Hallmark Holidays. Don't get me wrong, I like a bunch of flowers as much as the next girl but all things Velentine's here are strange and unnerving. For instance, Valentine's Day here hugely involves kids. I know. It's creepy. Valentine's Day should be about making children, it's not something you celebrate with them. Let me give some examples.......both George and Sabine have big parties at school today. They had to bring cards for everyone in their class (which meant Mummy had to do craft card making activities with them). They had to bring biscuits ( I just WILL NOT call them cookies) or little treats to give out (which meant Mummy had to bake Love Heart shaped items iced with fetching shades of pink and then wrap in cellophane, see picture). Then lots of parents buy gifts for their children. Creepy. Children got Leggo and Valentine's Balloon bouquets. You'd never catch an Aussie going so OTT! Is there any holiday that these people don't celebrate? And is there any holiday that doesn't involve the overconsumption of candy? The constant celebrations though does have a strange inverse effect. It kind of dilutes the big holidays. By the time you have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentines, 4th July etc, Christams just isn't a big as a deal as it is at home.



The snow has all melted now. We had a lot of snow (the mustang got bogged in the snowy driveway (so there was Davy and I in the dark -2 degrees celcius digging it out and rocking it back and forward!) but davy did acomplish getting it to the driveway in the first place by nailing it up the steep snow covered hill that is our street sidways with the traction control off. Just when we finally get a proper week of school with no snow days, wouldn't you know it, Friday and Monday are 'school holidays' which means that school children and teachers get the day off but not the general population. If I ever do get a visa I truely don't know how I'll work. In between snow days and these constant holidays I'd never get there! These two holidays are both for Presidents Day. Count em people, two Presidents Days. I think one is for George Washington and the other day is for all the others. They just get lumped together. Here is a video of the fun we had on the last snow day when even Davy couldn't get to work, (They closed the highway)


In other news Sabine has lost her two front teeth and her two bottom and the adult teeth are not coming through so well. Seems her mouth is too small (she didn't get that from me!) and all the teeth are just stacked up there in her gums, literally on top of each other. She went to the orthodontist yesterday and it seems that the poor child will have to have some sort of apparatas in her mouth for much of her childhood. The nurse did reassuringly tell me that the Dr hadn't mentioned 'head gear'. Thank heavens for small mercys! They'll start work on her after some more of her teeth come down. She's excited to get braces though (in a couple of years) and I do kinda get that. When I was young I secretly wanted braces......Soemone had told me that you can pick up the radio through the metal on your teeth. I guess that Aussie skepticism hadn't kicked in yet!

So when my children asked me this morning whether I would be buying them Valetine's gifts and making them pretty cards etc my response was clear. NO. We're bloody Australians and we don't buy into rubbish like that. "why not mum?" Well dear because we're too clever. We're too busy saying sorry and signing Kyoto and helping the good people of East Timor to worry about balloons and leggo. Besides, I can't afford it, I have to save up for braces. xxoo
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