So Friday was Valentine’s Day. It’s not a thing I’m much interested in — I don’t think Olof and I even wished each other a Happy Valentine’s Day — but the kids had been waiting for it for weeks. Not because they care any more than their parents do about hearts and flowers, but because it was the premiere date for the Lego movie.

We’d been planning to take the three middle kids and leave Yrsa with Farmor, partly because she’s only three, partly because the only showings were 3D, and partly because the English showing wasn’t until 8:15 in the evening. In the end, however, the older kids had talked it up so much in front of her that we didn’t have the heart to leave her when it was time to go.

Cartoons aren’t usually shown in English up here in the hinterlands, so we felt pretty lucky that this one was. I think it was down to the movie being directed at a mixed audience, rather than just at kids, and we weren’t surprised to find that our kids were the only ones under the age of about fifteen in attendance. I had thought that other audience members might think, since we brought little kids, that we had missed that it was an English showing, but as much as they all gabbed before the movie started there was little chance of that.

They settled right down when the curtains went up, though (probably didn’t hurt that their mouths were full of popcorn), and they all watched raptly. Even Yrsa stayed awake for the entire movie, although she wore the 3D glasses only about a third of the time, which is probably just as well. They all loved it and have been begging to see it again, and Olof loved it as well. I thought it was pretty good myself, which is saying something, as I’m really not much of a moviegoer.

All in all, it may just have been the best Valentine’s date I’ve ever been on.