Valentine's Aftermath

Today is one of my favorite holidays: the Day-After-Valentine's Day!

All the stores put their Valentine's suckers, chocolates, gummies, sweethearts, and sugary goodness on clearance. Candy and clearance = two of my favorite things! This is my time to stock up on little boxes of nerds and fun sized candies, perfect for a portable snack or a treat for when my nieces and nephews come to visit. That's what aunts are for right?

I read on about.com that kids receive about 39% of all Valentine's candy purchased, while women (wives, mothers, girlfriends, etc) come in second with 36%. Men get a measly 6%, grandparents 3%, and pets actually get 1% (I guess people buy their pets Valentines???) I did the math and that leaves about 15% left for the rest of us who just go and buy the candy for ourselves. Come on, you know you are one of those 15%...there is no shame here.

Also, this is the best time to buy conversation hearts because they pretty much never expire. Hard to believe that these sugar hearts with quirky sayings were around when Abraham Lincoln was president. They have evolved through the years in shape, production, flavors, and of course the sayings. These always crack me up. The makers of NECCO Sweethearts Conversation Hearts add about 10 new themed sayings every year. My past faves:

"TWEET ME" - I can just imagine giving this one to my grandma & the confusion that would follow
"FAX ME" - who has a fax machine for personal use anymore, or ever for that matter!?
"URA TIGER" - naughty conversation heart, naughty...
"URA QT" - I feel like I saw this on a license plate yesterday
"1 800 CUPID" - that's not even enough digits to be a phone number, come on!
"MY PET" - because everyone likes to be referred to as a dog/cat/fish/gerbil/etc...
"THANK YOU" - but they are missing a "UR WELCOME", maybe next year

All kidding aside, my Valentine's Day wouldn't be complete without these sweet little hearts, so I will buy into the commercialism of Valentine's day and load my basket full of discount candy today and quite frankly, I'm proud of it!

Happy Day-After-Valentine's Day everyone!