I can remember going to school as a young child and exchanging Valentines with the other kids in the class. I can even remember how from Kindergarten until about 6th grade there was a kid named Gregory Vice who would never fail to show up at my doorstep bearing gifts of chocolates, cards and flowers. I loved Valentine's Day. But I loved it because of the gifts that I would get, not because of the people that I loved or who may have loved me. As I grew older and eventually went off to middle school and knew that we would no longer exchange Valentine's with our classmates I began to feel the pressure to have a boyfriend each year for that holiday so that I knew I would be getting something and would not be the only girl walking around empty handed. Even after I graduated from high school the pressure was still felt each year to have someone to spend that special night with instead of being home alone. So why is it that even now, while I am an adult and married, I feel that pressure of celebrating and acknowledging this irrelevant holiday? Perhaps it is because I have children and one of the greatest things about being a child is all of the holidays. Perhaps it is because like the rest of the world I feel the pressure put upon us by the greeting card companies and do not want to be the only one who says that I gave nor received anything on that day. I know, it's ridiculous. I don't need a holiday to tell my husband and children how much I love them but we did it anyway.
So as it is, I awoke yesterday morning to get the kids ready for school and to my surprise Michael had left each of us a little something for Valentine's Day. While I truly expected nothing it is in these moments when he does just the smallest little things like this that remind me of how much and why I truly love him. For you see, no matter what problems we may be facing or the hardships that we are dealt he always seems to come through for us no matter what. In this case, I had no expectations of doing anything for Valentine's Day due to a lack of finances as well the fact of knowing that after he would get home from work he would then have to head off to school for the evening. But Michael, being the person that he is, made sure to do something to let each of us know that he was thinking about us that day.
Now of course with the kids off to school, Alyssa wearing her Valentine's shirt she made, the pressure was on me to come up with something special to surprise Michael and the kids with for the afternoon. Honestly, I was feeling this pressure mostly because for Christmas and for his birthday I was unable to provide gifts for Michael and as I said before, he always provides for us. So I sat down and began to wrack my brains about what I could do to show him that he is indeed special and loved.
It wasn't long before I came up with the idea to make something using what supplies I had readily available to me here at home and I set to work. I wanted to create an atmosphere that was light and fun but said that I am celebrating our love. Since we are not an overly romantic couple and are by far not a family that does anything elegantly my idea was to create some origami hearts and flowers to decorate with. After that it was some hand made cards for the little ones, writing on the windows with the window crayons and I was able to scrape together a few dollars to buy some stuffed animals, a small box of chocolates and cards for Michael and Dalton. I'd also promised Alyssa a 'Lady and the Tramp' style meal for the evening so I prepared spaghetti with meatballs for dinner and we rounded off the night with a cake covered in pink icing.
While none of this was extravagant, elegant or romantic it was perfect for us. They were all surprised and delighted by the decorations and gifts and although our time together for the day was brief it was still filled with love for one another. This is what everyday should be like.....well minus the gifts. LOL
BTW, the flowers will be staying indefinitely! I love how they turned out!
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