Happy Valentine's Day!



We we're surprised and thrilled to receive homemade Valentines in the mailbox today.  (The non-homemade one came last week, and that was fun, too.)  Thank you so much!

This holiday is celebrated quite a bit differently with teenagers than with elementary school kids.  (In fact I was surprised at the bitterness I sensed surrounding Valentine's Day as I quickly surfed through Facebook.  So sad.)  I do miss the excitement of class Valentines, although I don't miss the stress of preparation.  We had one teacher who used the tradition as practice for addressing mail.  Not only did our first grader have to write his name on the actual Valentine, he had to fill out an envelope with the classmate's address, and his own return address, and use a sticker for the stamp.  It actually was a pretty good idea, and she gave them a month's warning, but addressing 30 envelopes is a huge project!!

Since we're keeping things simple, we just used food to mark the special day.  I was planning on making heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast, but honored the last minute request for French toast instead.  That was actually a better way to show my love.  For dinner we tried this cute/corny idea I read about in the Family Fun magazine while waiting at the orthodontist earlier this month.  Of course we had to adapt it a bit.  A hot dog is a hot dog, but we had to do something, and I think it went over better than the beet soup we tried one year!

We hope all of you had a fun-filled day of love celebrated with family and friends near and far.

Happy Valentine's Day!