Once upon a time Wednesday is about things from the past. There are many stories in my head that I want to share with my girls. The trip to Ellis Island, thank you very much Liberty Mutual, this summer made me realize that I had to get these stories documented. History is extremely important and fun! Play along if you want!
Once upon a time, Valentine's Day was a big deal. I remember picking out my box of cards for my schoolmates and filling them all out. Remember giving the best one to the boy you liked in your class? My dad would always give us each a rose. We always got a card from my parents and my mom would make the day special by adding something to our lunch or making a nice dinner.
During prime dating years, I made it known that I LOVED Valentine's day (so you better do something for me, or else). Often times going out to dinner wasn't an option and I would cook a nice meal and we would eat by candle light.
I even, once upon a time, got engaged on Valentine's Day.
When the girls were born, I started taking an annual Valentine's picture. I would go to Old Navy and buy them matching pink Valentine shirts and do a photo shoot. These are some of my favorite pictures of them. Because I am crafty (dare I admit it), I always had the girls make their cards for their classmates. We marble painted hearts, added stickers to hearts and one year I took each of their top 10 favorite songs and made CDs for each of their classmates. We had fun doing this together. Given the option of buying cards for her friends or making them this year, B chose making them.
On Monday, I made the girls cinnamon rolls with pink icing, put Valentine's cookies in their lunch, got them each a bracelet, cards and their own Whoopie Pies with their names on them. They were very appreciative!
I am not sure if Valentine's Day has gotten a bad rap about being a greeting card holiday or what, but I was very disappointed to see the answers to my brother's Monday blog he puts out. He sends a question to like 200 people and posts their answers on Tuesday. He's been doing this for maybe 7 years. He went on about how he is not a fan of Valentine's and how he and his fiance were IGNORING the holiday. He asked what his friends did..... many of them said the same thing. They sat around and watched TV, went to bed, worked late, blah blah blah. The thing that got me most was that he didn't even send my mom a card! He actually used to send my mom, sister and I flowers on Valentine's Day. How did he turn into the Grinch of Valentine's Day?
I believe that many people say that Valentine's Day should be celebrated every day, not just one February day out of the year. What I wonder is how many people DO celebrate it every day? Do you tell the people in your life how much you love them every day? Do you do random acts of kindness every day? Do you leave chocolates on the pillows of your kids every night? I think it is nice to have a holiday in the middle of winter (when we are all about at our wits end) to remind us who and what we are grateful for and that love exists in many ways.
3 comments:
Love this post! Sally did a wonderful job of encouraging us to love "love"! And we do! SO bring on the mushy, romantic, lovey stuff!
my mom always made a big deal out of valentine's day and i loved that as a kid. but now, i don't know; i like it, my husband does a good job of making me feel special but i don't feel like there should be just ONE day a year. i do little things throughout the year to remind people how special they are to me. i want them to know that i love them all the time, not just on feb 14th. ;)
that being said, i think when i was an asst. manager at hallmark back in the day it kind of ruined the whole holiday for me- i watched too many men run in and grab whatever card was left on the way to dinner/home from work and it made me feel sad for their significant others. the day should be so much more than a $3 card.
:)
I agree--We need to show a littel extra love every day. We had a nice dinner the Sunday before, and we exchanged cards. One year, we actually made our cards--I still have them, too :)
Post a Comment