Valentine’s Day Recap

Valentine’s Day ended up being pretty special for us. It was a hectic day since I had to run to town for a few appointments and didn’t get home till about 5 in the afternoon.  I had planned to have Chinese – egg rolls, egg drop soup and possibly making a Beef Chow Mein.  I had never made Beef Chow Mein but thought I would attempt it but then I started thinking of the schedule and decided I would just pick up a couple of things from the Chinese restaurant instead for our main dish.

First we ate our egg rolls and egg drop soup at the kitchen table. (you can buy egg rolls from Costco when they have a coupon – they’re quite reasonably priced and taste good)  Then we moved into my bedroom where I had spread a sheet down with our plates on top.

I had made Chocolate caramel turtles and placed them in small bags. I then created a bag topper (I’m not sure what they’re called.) that said Mom and Dad are Nuts Over You.

It’s a tradition for our family to write notes to each other at Valentine’s.  This year we used the little mailboxes to place their messages into.

Sweet n Sour Pork and Beef Chow Mein was then served.

We were missing Zachary since he’s working and living 5 hours away.

We read our notes and let me tell you, that was so special. The kids really expressed their hearts and it was quite touching. 

We took turns reading verses from I Corinthians 13.

And then we finished up by asking and talking about the 5 love languages. I learned that one of my sons’ language is touch.  I had no idea.  (I don’t think he did either till he thought about it for awhile. :))

That’s something I’ve really been thinking about lately – expressing love to my kids in a way that speaks to them. We know and they know we love them but yet do they feel loved?

On this night we went around talking about things that make our kids feel loved and you know what?  It wasn’t big things – it was simple things like Russell always taking the kids to get an ice cream after going to work together. (it could have been an all day job or only a few hours) or in the case of my daughter, the day I took her to town just for her to shop (I dislike shopping with a passion, so she knew it was a real sacrifice. :))

It’s an interesting exercise.  Thankfully things have improved because just a few weeks ago when I asked my daughter when was the last time she felt loved she said, “Never.” Whoa! I guess some work in our relationship would be in order.  If you should do this, Beware: you might be surprised what you hear. 🙂