Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Ready For Valentine's

I lost all momentum for Christmas stuff, but I'm down with Valentine's Day. I hung the banner we made last year:


All the snow out there with sunlight bouncing off it made for a very bright background.

I also made painted rocks for the kids. A couple of years ago I gave them each a rock with a heart mod-podged onto it, and my youngest peeled hers off. This year she informed me that she needed a rock with a permanent, painted heart on it. Our supply of good painting rocks is running low, especially since she went through a heavy period of rock-painting earlier this autumn. But I managed to find three.


So sweet!

We also have a tradition, in this family, of giving the kids books for Valentine's Day. I accidentally started it, and one year when I didn't give the boys books--I knit them treasure pouches with a knit heart inside--my oldest looked stricken. "But we always get books for Valentine's!" Books it is.


My four-year-old loves all the Ladybug Girl books, so when I saw Bumblebee Boy (which we've had out of the library) on sale locally for half off, I picked it up for her. My eight-year-old likes origami and Star Wars and all those Star Wars origami books, and my oldest has had my little laminated tracking guide outside while we wait for the bus in the mornings so he can try to figure out who visited the snowy yard overnight. I figured a more complete guide would be welcome.

And finally, I didn't forget myself, either. My husband is away this week--we're starting a heavy travel period with one trip each of the next four months, this one being the only one that's not international (and thus the shortest of the four). I'm sort of head down about the travel, looking no farther than the week I'm in, because stacking trips like this--oh, they are hard, and it just gets harder as they pile up. But this week's trip is over Valentine's, and I'm by myself, and truth be told even if he were here I'd probably only get a card anyway, and I wanted something else, something special, and realized the only way that would happen is if I got it myself.


So I did. Two pairs of earrings, because I couldn't decide between the two, and yes, I had them wrapped, because I'm worth the pretty packaging.

How about you? Are you ready for Valentine's Day?

5 comments:

Carolyn said...

Good for you, you deserve something nice! I'm sorry that you're going to be alone so much, I know how exhausting it can be, having done it for years. I'll think good thoughts that everything will go smoothly. Are you still buried in snow?

Lori said...

love the book tradition. but i want to see what the earrings look like!!!

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Donna Lee said...

I love Valentine's Day. When the kids were small, I would decorate the dinner table with pink and red and silver hearts and we'd eat by candlelight.

This year, I got Looney Toones Valentine's for my coworkers, mailed cards to my children and am off to buy a box of my husband's favorite chocolates. There's a chocolate shop about 4 blocks from where I work that makes handmade chocolates. Worth every penny.

Anonymous said...

i don't celebrate it and don't get the idea of giving gifts to people on valentines day but then it's just not the done thing here - at least not beyond romance - but you all make it look so fun and lovely. It's so saturated in romantic love here - it's not at all perceived as a time to give loving gifts to anyone else.

I'm pretty sure we've had this conversation before - so i probably sound repetitive now!