Valentine's Day

I know, I know. This is so late it's not even relevant now, but since I haven't written in FOREVER, I have a lot of catching up to do.

So here is my general philosophy on Valentine's Day: it's awkward. The expectations of connecting with your spouse in a crowded restaurant while you pay an arm and a leg for someone to babysit the fruit of your love (uh, the kids) is just unreasonable.

So, I rebel.

In my opinion (and I thank God I married a man who validates my opinions and is willing to go along with my numerous, strange requests), our wedding anniversary is the date when we celebrate the commitment we have made to each other. Valentine's Day is about love, and I want to include my children in that celebration.

So here's what we do:

We dress up.

We have a nice candlelit dinner (Papa Murphy's heart-shaped pizza, salad, sparkling grape juice) with the kids. At dinner, we talk about how much we love each other and how much we love our girls and how Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate our family's love for each other. (Sorry if that was a little cheesy.)

The kids open the presents.

 We play with the presents.

And we eat a wedding cake. Not the whole cake, obviously. Ryan just orders the cake topper.

I have really loved creating traditions with our family. I know every family does Valentine's Day differently, and I think however you celebrate (or not), that's great. The important thing is to feel loved, to love, and to know that Hallmark (isn't that to whom we are supposed to direct all our snarky comments about Valentine's Day being a commercial holiday, etc?) isn't the one who dictates what you do on that day.

One important detail: at the end of the evening, after I felt we had really driven home the point of Valentine's Day, I asked Coralie what Valentine's Day is all about. She said, "Having a PARTY!!!!!!" So. We're still working on that.