Valentine's Day 2012

Part of our Valentine's Day tradition is to start a week early for FHE and to have a box on the table throughout the week leading up to V-Day with envelopes that we have decorated and hearts to leave notes for each other.  The kids love reading the notes from each other and it is a good exercise for them to spend a week thinking of things that they love about each other.  We also did a heart for the Valentine's FHE with Jesus Christ as the center heart and each of us  having a piece that completed the heart around it.

We held to our 9 year tradition which did not disappoint the kids.  I love spending the hour stringing up my house with different colors of yarn to surprise each of my kids with a little their own little treasure hunt and goodie box of love.  Preparing for Valentine's Day is more fun for me that getting ready for Christmas.

It was fun to have first-timers Bret and Vivien with us for the string round up and to hear the kids enthusiastically tell of years past and how it gets more and more difficult each year.  They thought it was quite fun though Vivien was torn between trying to take pictures and winding her own string up.

It get a little tricky to follow each kid to be there for their candid smiles when they get to the end of their string with each of them ending in different spots.  I love seeing how excited they are for colorful socks, a 1x3 cube to solve, red sweets and a card.  I'm not sure if they loves the strings or the goodies more.

I didn't want to leave Levi out on Valentine's Day and I did offer to run a string from our house to his apartment (which he almost took me up on and I TOTALLY would have done - I'm that crazy) but instead I just took a Valentine box over to him.  He had texted me earlier in that week wondering if I was making lasagna any time soon, which I took as a hint that he was hungry and wanted real food.  This box didn't give him home cooked food but knowing that he was shy on groceries and this would be a step up from Raman I figured he wouldn't complain.  As he took everything out and layed it on his table I swear he almost started to drool.  He was thrilled and his roommates were convinced that it was the coolest Valentine gift ever.

My gift for LeRoy went along with a little joke that has been going on between us for the last 18 years.  When LeRoy started working as an electrician and taking lunches every day he became a little addicted to Little Debbie treats (they make me want to gag but they are cheap and he loves them so I won't tell him that).  When he started to complain about putting on a few pounds I teased him that his constant affair with Little Debbie was what was doing him in.  It hasn't stopped him all these years (and pounds) later.  Even the kids know about his "affair" and will tease him.

When I saw these pillow cases I read them a little differently than most people might.  I didn't get them to make sure that he knew that I am always right but rather that he would have an every day reminder that even though he still fosters his daily affair with Debbie that I am always his Mrs. Right.  He laughed and laughed, took pictures with his phone and laughed some more. Now he occasionally calls me Mrs. Always Right and he puffs his chest out just a little when I call him Mr. Right.