Hearts, Pink, Love and Mushy Stuff

Another one bites the dust. I have a love/hate relationship with Valentines Day. I think, for children, its a sweet day full of opportunity to talk about love and show them how its nice to SHOW others how you feel. Its fun for crafts, pink food and holiday parties at school. V was very into Valentines Day this year and 3 weeks ago wanted to make a Vday box to keep on the stand in between our rooms so we could exchange love letters everyday. It was fun. All of mine had her name and my name and girl with a bow in her hair drawn on it. It was cute. She's a sweetie.

As for adults go, I think the holiday is totally CHEESY. I mean, I think its fun to celebrate wtih someone but its also sort of a lame day. I dont want to be show that you care on the same day that every.other.person in the world/america (not sure who all celebrates) is being shown. I think as adults we should be capable of finding unique and fun ways to show people we care all year. I know its idealistic to say- but really....Ok, off my soap box now.

We did have a fun day. As a child I have SO ANY fond memories of Valentines day. I have said it a million times but my mom was excellent about making holidays fun and memorable for us. It was always a special day! We woke up every year to a valentines day fairy treat (usually our favorite- cherry jub jells and a small stuffed animal, coloring book or some other fun goodie and chocolate.) It was sweet. I have followed the tradition with V but she knows its just me....The Valentines Day fairy brought balloons while she was at preschool and a small paddle/ball toy. She thought she hit the jackpot with that Dollar Tree toy until it broke about 10 paddles in. And honestly dont know what I was thinking with the balloons. If you EVER need balloons hit up your dollar tree. They are all $1 for huge mylar balloons...forget the $10 from other stores! I loathe balloons. They are noisy, in the way and as soon as they start to deflate I really cant stand them. She carried them around everywhere with her yesterday. Everywhere. Including the bathroom, put them at the bottom of her bed during nap, at dinner holding onto them. Cute. Alot of my memories also revolve around Sunday School for some reason (I have very few memories of school parties- but a couple) Singing I have the Joy Joy Joy Joy Down in My Heart, squatting down with each "down" and screaming the word "where?" While holding onto a box of candy hearts (Idk but this is one of my most vivid memories) while standing next to Johnny Swarthout, his mom leading music time and my sister standing in back with her "too cool to sing this song puppetteers." Ha, I love that memory.

ready to hit the oven! I forgot an after shot so
imagine the buttery goodness a golden shade of brown;)

We colored and read valentines day books and gave lots of hugs and kisses and then started in on Homemade Chicken Pot Pie.  Because following a recipe would nearly kill me, I of course changed it up by adding honey when cooking the chicken, used almond milk and chicken broth for the sauce (was a little thin, should have added more flour), seasoned with thyme, ground mustard, fresh garlic, a bay leaf and a pinch of nutmeg, salt and pepper.) I nearly doubled the chicken and used cressent rolls instead of phyllo dough because we all know our tiny little grocery store doesnt carry phyllo dough. They were yummy! I still have some perfecting to do but they were pretty tasty.

Hope everyone had a fantastic Valentine's Day.
What's your favorite memory? Do you celebrate/
get into the day? One of my favorite parts is that now its on to St Patricks Day which is really
MY Holiday!  Time to get our green on and start speaking like an Irishmen.

Hearts, Pink, Love and Mushy Stuff