Stringy Valentine's Day

Six years ago I had the wild idea to use a full skein of yarn per kid and run that yarn all over the house with a Valentine at one and a red treasure at the other end. Every year it has fallen on a school day so I could string up the house while the kids were at school and the party began after school and went through dinner. Keeping the tradition alive on a Saturday took some early morning effort on my part but it was so worth the surprise. The kids hadn't mentioned it at all so I asked them afterward if they had been expecting it. For some reason they didn't think we would do it at our new house or on a Saturday. Hah! Well, the tradition lives on.

I started at 6am. It took me a full hour set up the table for breakfast and to string up all 6 skeins of yarn. By the time I was finished I felt like I had spent the hour doing squats and stairs. It's hard to get a picture of the colorful spider web of yarn but believe me it was beautiful. The stairs is where I could get the best picture because each person crossed the stairs twice.

Justin had a primary activity at 10 so after I had spent an hour and a half keeping Nathan out of the string we finally woke everyone else up. There were teenage grumbles of "it's only 8:30" or "it's Saturday!" but they got up anyway. The sleepy, groggy kids that stumbled out of bed were soon enthusiastically winding up yarn as they covered the whole house on a Valentine treasure hunt. Nathan didn't know what would be at the end but he had a great time leading LeRoy along the green string that was labeled his.

I wondered if Levi was to old for this tradition but he assured me several time throughout the day that this is his "favorite holiday tradition ever". Justin's favorite part is that I make it difficult by winding and weaving around anything and everything I can.

This was the first year that LeRoy was a part of our stringy mess. Usually he is at work so it has always been something between the kids and I. He was surprised to find at the end of Nathan's string that there was a gift for him as well. I ordered personalized M-n-M's for him that had our picture as well a 2 different LeRoy sayings on them. He loves them! He called his dad to tell him about them. He told several of our neighbors at the primary activity about them. He is taking a bag of them to Montana to show all the guys. Luckily they came in 3 individual bags so he has opened one up to eat, the other one will be displayed on his nightstand (probably forever, or until Nathan sneaks off with them) and he's saving the other one for who knows what. We'll probably serve them to our grandkids at our 50th wedding anniversary.

Erika immediately changed into her new pajama pants

Derek was thrilled with his tongue depressors (225 of them) and roll of masking tape. He has already built a house, 2 tanks and a truck, 2 catapults and a bow and arrow set.

Nathan has stayed plenty warm indoors with his new Elmo hat and gloves.

Levi is all ready for a 6 hour flight with his travel size Guitar Hero.

Justin's addiction to hoodies lives on in red.