Valentine's Day is the New Halloween

It's official. I've had more than a few moms say to me, "What's with all the Valentine's candy?"
It used to be that, on Valentine's Day, you'd go to school and the teacher would collect everyone's cards and have the class pet pass them out. Some kids got a huge pile of cards, while other kids, sadly, got fewer. (These were the days before class lists and social equality.) You'd take your pile of little cards home, stuff them in a drawer and call it a day.
But that was so yesterday. Today's kids have taken Valentine's Day to new heights. Anything that can be glued, taped or stuffed into a cello bag is fair game. We're talking pencils, stickers, snack bags of chips, lollipops, chocolates, tickets to Broadway.
The Sugar Baby's haul included four pencils, three cards that did some crazy 3-D stuff, a bag of Goldfish, a tattoo, sunglasses that made him look disturbingly like Elton John and-- the Holy Grail-- a rootbeer-flavored Dum Dum from a little girl he's never even said boo to but now considers his one true love.
My sister-in-law said the post-Valentine's crash in their house was so bad that they've given up sugar for Lent. (I'm sure this is an unwilling sacrifice on the part of my nephews.)
In the house of Yum, I finally had to tell the Sugar Baby that we were going to play the "Quiet Game." He said, "You play the Quiet Game, I'll play the Talking Game."
Thank goodness it's all over with. And now there's just 39 days 'til the Easter Bunny comes.