Friend Making Monday: Valentine's Day

Today's Friend Making Monday is all about Valentine's Day... How did you spend the day? What did you get? What did you do? And what would have made the day even better?

We started off the day by going to church - with two blizzards back to back, we haven't been in two weeks! We usually listen to worship music on the drive, and I was inspired to suddenly shout, "Happy Valentine's Day, Jesus!" He is, after all, the Source of Love.

We decided to get pizza on the way home, while running a few quick errands. Costco has become an after church recreation/addiction of sorts...we roam around the store for the tasty samples while collecting compliments on how cute our children are or what a lovely family we have. Of course, we are all dressed up for church (and Momma works hard putting together the outfits!) My seven year old son always wants to buy me flowers - he went off with his Daddy to pick out a bouquet for his sister and me. We were presented with the lovely pink roses when we joined them at the front of the store. More than a few onlookers seemed genuinely touched by his excitement and joy as he explained how long he had planned to do this and his selection process. Momma just kept hugging her boy and thanking him. I was in danger of turning into an emotional mess, though I will replay that scene over and over and over in my head for years to come. The sweet, sweet love of a boy for his Momma...

After naps, my daughter, "Butterfly," passed out the Valentine's cards she had worked on all week. Mine was a big red heart with a fancy purple lace trim. She made an Elmo Valentine for baby brother and a football helmet shaped one for "QB", the seven year old. Butterfly and I had picked out small puppets to give out as Valentine presents, and the three kids had fun the rest of the evening playing together with them. (I like to emphasize the meaning of each holiday and not load up on sweets, so I deliberately look for items or activities other than food.) After saying that (ha!), I am showcasing the dessert I made: Valentine's Day Cake Pops. I saw them featured on Bakerella and had to try them. Yummy and oh so cute!!! Our Valentine's Day consisted of family togetherness, nothing dramatic, but with plenty of warm, loving moments. And I'm very, very content with that. It's so easy to get caught up in the hype of what we're told a certain holiday is supposed to look like. Romantic dinners. Expensive flowers. Jewelry. Chocolates. Red and pink. Violin music softly playing in the background... And if it doesn't look like that??? Perhaps it's a rebellious trait (ask my mom), but I do not like anyone defining for me what something should look like. Especially experiences. And just because many people are doing it a certain way is not a sufficient enough reason for me to just go along with something, without my own examination of it. After enough years of feeling like my life was less than ideal and somehow wrong because holidays rolled around without the "appropriate" type of celebration, I decided that I would re-define for me and my family what was natural, appropriate and fitting in terms of celebrating these kinds of occasions. So, our lives don't look like the commercials...maybe there's something wrong with the commercials.