Happy Valentine's Day

Blake and I have been together for almost 10 years, and we have not yet celebrated Valentine's Day. I can't remember exactly how the conversation went so many years ago, but Blake basically said he felt like it was just another "Hallmark holiday," and that it would make more sense, if we really wanted to celebrate our love, to do it on a day that has meaning for us. I thought this was a fine idea, so, we made our own day of celebration on November 1st, the anniversary of when we started dating.

Every year on November 1st, I gave Blake a letter reflecting on our previous year together. Every year, we'd have a date night to celebrate. The year after Anna was born, the letter didn't come until December, and there was no date night planned. The year after that, I think we both forgot about November 1st entirely. Until today I actually thought last year was the first year that I failed to write the letter. I went searching for them on our computers, and 2008 was the last to be found (I'm still searching for 03 and 04 as well, which I KNOW were written). That's how quickly time is moving in our lives.

The moral of this story, for me, is that while Valentine's Day might hold more meaning when it's on a day special to us, we apparently could benefit from the reminder from television, restaurants, co-workers, friends, classmates, and Hallmark that the day to celebrate our love is upon us. Since November 1st came and went again this year, I've decided to break the rules and write a letter to Blake on Valentine's Day.

And, with Anna at the age where she hears about this kind of thing and gets excited about it all, she and I also made a few little gifts for Blake.

These yarn hearts were a Pinterest discovery at this website. The cornstarch glue was much thicker than I expected, so we just "painted" it onto the yarn with our fingers. We did speed the drying process by putting them in the oven. Fun, easy, and adorable!

I think I saw this frame idea initially on Pinterest as well, but my friend's recent post reminded me of it. I just printed text on some heavy-weight scrapbook paper, cut it to the appropriate size, and put it in an old frame. With a dry erase marker we can take turns writing messages for each other, and maybe for ourselves as well. It's my hope that the frame will help us nurture our relationship a little bit more every day of the year, not just on special occasions.

Happy Valentine's Day!