{"id":4269,"date":"2019-02-14T00:50:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T05:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=4269"},"modified":"2019-02-14T00:50:14","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T05:50:14","slug":"that-moment-this-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/?p=4269","title":{"rendered":"That Moment, This Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On this Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day, we, the Island Family, have reached a landmark moment. Our kids are all in middle school and high school now, so for the first time since 2006, not one single person in the family has to make class valentines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am living in\nthe land of mixed emotions. On one hand, my kids are growing up. An era has\npassed, an era I loved that can never be regained. On the other hand: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know how\nfree you can feel during the month of February with no class valentines to\ncoordinate, no class lists to acquire, no heated discussions on which item or\ncandy to include with the valentines you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve gone to six stores to find?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know the\njoy of not thinking about valentine box designs, or the procurement of\nmaterials to make the aforementioned box, or the supervision of the construction\nof the aforementioned box? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know what exuberance\nyou can experience by getting the kids to school and not<\/em> suddenly realizing your child forgot the valentines at home\nbecause there are no valentines to forget like there were last year????  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you know how\nhard it was for me not to put the last three questions in caps because I wanted\nto joyfully scream them to the universe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greater parents\nhave been driven to drinking and binge online shopping over these\nresponsibilities. I now feel like Galadriel in Lord of the Rings<\/em> after she resists the temptation of the ring. Impressing\neven herself, she says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have passed the test. I will diminish and go into\nthe West, and remain Galadriel.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In the movie version, remember Cate Blanchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\neyes when she realizes she has passed? This is what I am talking about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\nFebruary could feel like this. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost better than chocolate. In fact, it is <\/em>better than white chocolate, my least\nfavorite of the chocolates. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how good this feels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, now that our kids are older and we are no longer exhausted by the marathon that is the valentine exchange process, LCB and I will probably do things a little differently than we used to do (like exchanging the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So, are we doing anything this year?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d looks I mentioned in 2014, for instance<\/a>). Maybe we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll crack a bottle of wine. Maybe we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll hold hands. Maybe LCB will even pull me out on the deck so we can look up at the stars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then probably, like last year, at some point one of us will do something that just doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153really fit with the ambiance\u00e2\u20ac\u009d LCB \u00c2\u00a0will have been \u00e2\u20ac\u0153attempting to invoke.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a> There will be the volleying of wit, just like last year, and soon we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be leaning against the railing, overcome by laughter, and the moment will have shifted, almost as fast as preschoolers shift into teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That moment, too, will eventually pass, as moments always do. But maybe it will pass because we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153left bank Bordeaux, complex and earthy, with mild tannins, and finished with a hint of currants\u00e2\u20ac\u009d waiting inside, one we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only had small glasses of thus far, for taste. Maybe it will even be the very same \u00e2\u20ac\u0153full-fledged adult wine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that reversed the smarting of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parental hits. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite good, that\nwine. It would be a shame to waste it, so maybe we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll move inside, fill our\nglasses, and just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6enjoy that moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy this Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\nDay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day, we, the Island Family, have reached a landmark moment. Our kids are all in middle school and high school now, so for the first time since 2006, not one single person in the family has to make class valentines. I am living in the land of mixed emotions. On one hand, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2326,2324,2325,2327],"class_list":["post-4269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-island-parenting","tag-no-more-class-valentines","tag-parenting-on-valentines-day","tag-valentines-day-with-teenagers","tag-wine-on-valentines-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.anislandmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}