Valentines Day is one of the weirdest.. maybe silliest "holidays" on the calendar during this phase of life (right next to St. Patricks day I guess which also just feels like an excuse to buy rainbow candies and chocolate gold coins).
Valentine's Day made much more sense as unmarried daters in love and looking for any excuse to celebrate it. Oh, that phase was so good. It really was the reasons I wound up loving Valentine's Day in the first place I guess but for now, while our kids are still finding their way on this weird holiday, we choose to celebrate them.
We smother them in love and chocolate and candies so that one day, they treat this day with the butterflies in your stomach that it deserves. Just pure, innocent, love love love!
Ever since Carter started kindergarten, I have loved making Valentines for each of their classes. Unique to each of our children that year. Now that Carter is in grade 9 and obviously not handing out Valentines to classmates anymore, with each passing year, my valentines crafting opportunities gets smaller and smaller.
This year, I only made them for Penny's class (she picked out the design of course). Bentley just wanted to toss out some valentines candies, or in our case...Fruit by the foot, and call it a day. Nothing fancy, nothing personal. He's in Junior High, grade 7, so I knew this was going to be the case.
We choose to celebrate our kids and smother them with love on Valentines Day just because we can and we want to! We soak in every single phase of parenting at an arguable unhealthy capacity but leave every phase behind with no regret. So with my entire heart, Happy Valentines Day to my four favourite people on earth!
I made their beds and left a little something for them from us.
I set the table with all things from the basement that we continually pull out year after year. Just for an ordinary dinner, probably pasta so I can use the cream for the sauce before the expiration date, a chocolate cake that was on sale in August and in the freezer ever since just itching for an opportunity to have a fancy cake and a balloon garland I had made two weeks ago for a client's photoshoot. It's never a big-to-do holiday but never forgotten either.
Carter has come home from school early not feeling great and we will spend the rest of our Valentines evening at the gym for all three of their basketball training tonight. But, Brian and I will be side by side with the court beneath our feet and I know we will both love it just the same as a fancy date. This phase of life is fast and in no time at all we will be eating out together on Valentines Day while our kids all celebrate the day of love with someone they care about. All in due time.
And so, to my Valentine. There are 1000 moments in the day when I think "wow, he is amazing" or "how did I ever get so lucky" or even "yikes, I hope he's never used my toothbrush" (lol). I love you so much Brian. Like, totally obsessed with you! You make every day better than the last. I cherish our adventures. I love being playful with you. I love cuddling up with you every night watching shows and resetting from a crazy day. You are my safe place and I really am so grateful for you. You truly are the love of my life, my soulmate, my very best friend and the one person I could never get sick of! I love our relationship, the home we built and the adventures we have yet to have. I look forward to our life ahead. I just am wildly in love with you. I cannot envision a life without you. I will cherish you all the days of my life. Walking hand in hand and side by side. I appreciate you.
Happy Valentine's Day, babe. I hope you always know how much you mean to me.
Cherish the ones you love, that's what life is all about!
