Warning: this is not my typical post. This one leans heavy into a "for my own memory's sake/ journal keeping category."
Valentine's Day very well may be a silly holiday pushed upon us by manufacturers and companies like Hallmark, hoping to sell us their products and goods at double the price as we scramble to "prove" to those around us that we love them. I get that. There have been many years where we celebrated V-day on the following weekend or barely at all due to life's busy schedule, a low budget, or just not bothering. Dave and I never feel like we "have" to celebrate any holiday especially when it falls on a weekday. One thing I love about our relationship is that it is very honest and open. We have vowed to not be "hint makers" with each other ( a person who says one thing but really wants something else). So each year before any given holiday we state our honest opinion on how we want to celebrate it. Some years we say "lets not get gifts." And we mean it. We don't.
This year we said, "Lets do small gifts this year." And we did. We tried to use creativity and thought over large sums of money. (not that I don't enjoy large sums of money too) :)
I made Dave a little book of 52 reasons I love him. It was made from a deck of cards and each card had a different reminder of why I love him. It was hard to limit all the reasons to 52! He also got some new exercise pants (our newest past time is exercising these days) and a bag of his favorite peanut butter M&Ms.
Well, my gifts were pretty insignificant compared to what he had planned for me. It started out with a delivery on Fri with a bouquet of roses and the sweetest note:
The girls got a couple more early Valentines in the mail from Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma. Lizzie even got her first Valentine from a boy. (Just her good buddy Joshy though :) ) I can say that Lizzie truly treasured each and every one. She insisted on taking them to bed with her that night. The girls had a great time spending their money from Great Grandma at the dollar store! 
We started the actual day of by exchanging gifts and heading to the Y. We then, undid all our hard work by eating pizza for lunch and picking up See's chocolates. We came home to some fun Valentines left by Linda and my neighbor down the street. The girls were VERY excited by the balloons and all the candy. I could use one word to sum up the girls V-day experience: Candy. They loved it.I'll be honest and say that Dave and I usually focus on just each other and the kids for Valentine's Day but this year we decided to expand our circle and spread the love to more people. My favorite part of the day was taking dinner to one of our next door neighbors who has been stressed and busy taking care of her sick Mom, amidst her own family's needs. While I am blessed to belong to a church where we do these types of things for each other a lot, I don't believe this family has this type of support during hard times. They were very surprised and so grateful it touched my heart. I would normally feel averse to posting this on the blog for fear of coming across as boasting, however I feel the benefits of remembering this years moments and feelings too great to be forgotten. I learned some things this holiday that I don't want to forget. May our family always remember the best way to celebrate love, especially on Valentine's Day: Loving one Another.
Call it karma. Call it blessings. Call it what you may. I can tell you though that serving others will always bless you even more than the person receiving the service. As I made dinner/dessert for the neighbors, Dave spontaneously decided that he would prepare a fancy meal for our family. We feasted on delicious chicken parmesan with extra mushrooms (our favorite). The kids ate MORE V-day treats. Then we headed out to run a couple more Valentines to people. The girls' fav stop being Grammy and Papa. The most interesting stop being our new neighbors.
*Funny story: We brought some valentine treats to a different, new set of neighbors that had just moved in and it almost seemed they were suspicious of our overly welcoming greeting. They gave a piece of the treats to each of our girls before trying it themselves and I swear it was to make sure it wasn't poisoned or something. hahaha.
We got home pretty late and put the girls to bed.
Then Dave surprised me, yet again, with a fancy fondue feast! He perfectly recreated my favorite melting pot dessert complete with oreo covered marshmallows for dipping in the cookies and cream, chocolate deliciousness.
It was a GREAT Valentine's Day. And one I won't soon forget.
