I love holidays, so that means I’m just a tad overly ambitious when it comes time to celebrate them. 🙂 Valentine has always been one of my favorite occasions, but because it falls in between my birthday, Bridgette’s birthday, and often times Chinese New Year, it usually becomes this hectic mad dash of planning.
With school-age children in the house, no holidays are left forgotten because they learn about each one in school. The girls were ready for Valentine before we even got into February. I, on the other hand, only began wrapping my head around it a few days prior….
I dug up some old decor that I kept from Bridgette’s 4th birthday party and reused them as valentine decorations around the house. The girls picked and wrote their own valentine cards to their classmates. On Valentine’s morning, I woke up extra early to make a special breakfast for them–heart shaped pancakes that looked a little deformed but still loved by the girls. 🙂
When I picked them up from school, they each had their own giant size Valentine envelopes, filled with sweet notes and goodies from their friends.
During Christmas, the girls had so much fun being “Secret Elves” that they decided to be “Secret Cupids” for Valentine’s Day. Together, we made colorful sprinkled marshmallows and packaged them for our neighbors with the sweet note that read “From your Secret Cupid”.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon slaving off in the kitchen as I prepared our home cooked Valentine meal. Overly ambitious as always, I decided to cook a seared scallop from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc cookbook, poached lobster from a Rachel Ray recipe, pan-fried salmon, brussel sprouts, and mushroom risotto. It took me nearly 4 hours, but it was well worth it as everyone enjoyed the dinner immensely (at least that was what they told me 🙂 )
We all got “dressed up” even though we were staying in. For Alan, Mimi, and I, that merely meant getting out of our pajamas and sweats. 🙂 The girls took it very seriously and went all out in picking their attire. When Bridgette came downstairs, she was in a summer tank dress layered with a hula dress, a silk wrap from China, and a blue orchid clip in her hair. LOL! Brianne was a little more subtle, but both began to act incredibly lady like from that point forward. Bridgette reminded us to put our napkins on our laps, they drank from wine glasses filled with sparkling cider, and Brianne used her fork and knife (at the same time!!) to cut into her salmon. Bravo girls! 🙂
Last year, Bridgette and Alan went to a father/daughter Valentine dance put on by our local community. They really wanted to go again this year, with Brianne, but because the date conflicted with a birthday party they had already committed to, they had no choice but to skip the dance this year. To make up for it, we promised the girls some dancing after dinner. True to our word, we played the song My Valentine, created a makeshift heart-shaped dance floor, and allowed the girls to dance with their valentines. 🙂
One more sweet memory:
