Share the LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day!!

This year Maddie presented a new tradition for Valentine's Day that we loved!

She was in charge of Family Home Evening on February 1st and came out with all these boxes, paper, scissors and tape. We sang "As I Have Loved You" and she read from John in the New Testament where Jesus talks about loving one another and the verse where he says he would lay down his life for his friends.

Then we went to work to make our own personal Valentine boxes:

These are our boxes. (The flowers are from Ted; he got them a few days earlier to ease a stressful week I'd had. I love to have fresh flowers in [and outside] of the house.) She asked us each to put at least 4 Valentine's in each others' boxes. She told us to set them right outside our bedroom doors. So we did it. I watched the kids secretly write notes and stuff them in boxes all afternoon. I framed pictures of us and gave one to each of the kids and to Ted; they just wouldn't fit inside the boxes. I went and bought some candy necklaces for them and some chocolate hearts for all the boxes. I wrote the kids a love letter :) and made a list of ABCs of love for Ted. The kids really loved the secrecy, the chance to send Valentine's in the house and to give treats. Maddie gave us all chocolate kisses...

We did this for about 2 weeks and then opened them at a special breakfast on Valentine's day morning. Maddie had decorated the table, used beautiful red, shiny placemats, brought all our boxes in, etc. She made cinnamon rolls (thanks, Pillsbury!) and fruit bowls.

We had the most wonderful time opening and reading the notes from one another. Lots were written on those little cartoony-types of Valentines you buy at Walmart for your classmates; some were written on plain paper or computer-typed.

Both kids wrote us some poetry; Nick's was especially touching as he is learning a lot about words, poems, and literary/figurative language. He wrote me this anagram of MOTHER:

M most loving

O offering

T teaching

H helpful

E earrings

R rather playing with me

I absolutely LOVE my kids' notes to me. I save them. Some I hang up, some I put in a big binder. I will miss my kids at this age so much when they pass it by.

Nick wrote to Ted about how he loves his dad for playing sports with him. I'd quote it if I had the paper right now, but we'll find it and add it. It's worth remembering exactly.

We thank Maddie for our new tradition that challenged Ted's art skills, that made us think of one another often and had us writing of our appreciation to each other. Yea, Maddie!