Happy (Healthy) Valentine's Day, Stags

I remember when I was in elementary school. Valentine's day would come around and that would mean Valentine cards made of red paper and doilies, glitter, store-bought valentines (with envelope included), and CANDY! Just this year, Bloomberg Business Week predicted that over 140 million pounds of candy will be sold for Valentine's day... 60 percent of it is chocolate. Nothing wrong with that. I certainly looked forward to and got a good share of candy from friends and classmates on Valentine's day. One of the iconic symbol of Valentine's day continues to be the candy hearts with romantic sayings like "BE MINE" or "KISS ME."

Fast forward 2 decades: Over the years, several school districts have banned Valentine candy. Now, when kids exchange Valentines on Feb. 14, they give out cards, pencils, stickers, or other small, non-sweet treats to show their friendship and affection for each other.

Lucas' school was on-board with the idea. His teacher sent home a letter asking parents to bring a valentine for every child in the class IF they bring valentines at all. So it's an all-or- nothing policy. I imagine that this there to avoid hurt feelings if someone does not get a valentine. The teacher also politely encouraged us to keep the valentines candy-free. So Lucas and I went to the dollar store to look for cards, stickers, pencils, erasers, and .... and... boy there was a lot of enticing red, pink, and purple CANDY! But we were good and we stuck to our sweets-free shopping list for Lucas' class

... with a few Goo Goo bars for Mommy.

Old habits die hard!