Valentine’s Day 2012

I have to start off by mentioning that Aaron and I do not have a history of fantastic Valentine’s Days. Sure, we have had some great ones in the past, but we’ve had some bombs. First Valentine’s Day together: we’d been dating about a month. Aaron planned a super sweet day for us. My whole family had been sick with the stomach flu, but I was just fine. I did issue a warning, though, that I could succumb at any time. Good thing. We went and played racquetball together, which was extremely fun. Then we went back to his house where he had brought every plant that his mother owned into the living room, turned the heater up, played nature sounds, and prepared a faux picnic. This was extremely thoughtful, since I really struggle during winter and the doldrums usually peak around February. So for my Valentine’s gift he gave me summer. Can I get a collective, “AWWWW!!!” Then, to top it off, he had rented Gone with the Wind, one of my favorite movies, for us to watch together. Yes, ladies, this is why I married him. He’s great like that. Everything was going fine until we got to the burning of Atlanta. Instead of seeing this epic scene: I was viewing something slightly less epic: I was SOOOOO sick. Our romantic first Valentine’s Day was abruptly ended and he had to take me home without so much as a good night’s kiss. And yet he still married me. He’s great like that. Last year he had to be out of town for work, so I celebrated a lonely hearts Valentine’s at Red Robin with just me and the kids. It turned out that he was going to be out of town AGAIN this year over Valentine’s Day. Grrrr. But what’s a girl to do? The kids and I did the best to make the most of it anyway. I bought each kid a new Valentine’s Day outfit. I grabbed the one for Bridget first, which meant, of course, that every kid had to have one. Paul’s is my very very favorite. It’s very hard to find a Valentine shirt that looks manly, but this is it. I just want to squeeze him every time he wears it. In the past I’ve handmade each of our valentines, but since we’re in the middle of showing our house, I swore off all stressful and/or messy crafting projects. So this year’s valentines were much simpler, but still very cute. I made a topper for Paul’s valentines that said “You’re so Kool” and he picked out two packets of Kool-Aid for each valentine. We put them in a clear treat bag and stapled them shut. Done. Averi found some flocked valentines in the dollar spot at Target that she wanted to buy with her own money. She colored them herself. We grabbed some chocolate hearts, put them in the same clear treat bags, and stapled them shut. Done. Katie picked out some sugar cookies from the store and I found the topper online. Treat bags, staples, done. Told you I took the easy path this year. We ate heart pancakes for breakfast and called our families on Facetime to wish them a happy day. In the afternoon we delivered the valentines to all their primary classmates. We wound up going to 18 houses. It took FOREVER, but the kids had a great time and everyone was so cheerful. We made the last stop at my friend Monique’s house and were planning on going to Dion’s for pizza. She took pity on poor, husbandless me and invited us to share in their Valentine’s Day dinner. It was so wonderful. She has girls that are Katie and Averi’s age (and Bridget’s, too!), and Paul idolizes Carter. Boys in a sea of girls have to stick together, even if they are at least three years apart. We had heart-shaped pizzas and delicious dessert fondue and the kids had a great time playing together. Monique and I got to keep each other company, since her husband had to go to Young Mens. Thank you, Frosts, for letting us crash your dinner! We had a blast. It turned out to be a surprisingly nice day, even without my sweetheart. He made up for it by bringing me a necklace, though. I guess I’ll keep him.