Valentine's Day

I may have posted this before, but I guess if I did it is worth repeating. Years ago when I was in YW, I heard a story about a lady who owned very beautiful things, but never let anyone use them. In fact, her family did not even know she owned them until after she died and they were cleaning out her things and found them. They supposed that she was waiting for a "special occasion" to use them, but never considered anything special enough. That always made me sad, and I remember talking my mom into using her "good" dishes and silverware for Sunday dinner that day! I also decided that I would never be like that, and even though I don't own any fine china, or real silver, I always use my best things on Valentine's Day with my family. We decorate the table, set out the goblets and best dishes, and lots of candles. Why not show the people that I love the most that they are worth my best?

As I said earlier, I've had so much fun decorating for Valentine's Day this year. I found another cute idea online Saturday (some fun L, O, V, E) blocks, and I knew I had to make some. I even had all necessary materials on-hand, so I dove right in. But, then I decided to mix it up a bit and make them my own, so what I finished with was nothing like what I started out thinking I was making.


Notice the candy dishes in the picture... totally empty! I couldn't afford to keep filling them up just to have the kids drain them within 24 hours.

Also on Saturday, I decided to make something fun for my Primary girls. I am blessed to be able to teach one of CTR 10 class... I have 8 adorable girls in the class! I made them some "love knot" hair clips. I think they liked them... at least no one told me that they didn't to my face! HA!


Years ago I started making a "red" dinner for Valentine's each year. We've had chili dogs, lazagna, red beans and rice, spaghetti... you get the idea. This year I was out of ideas, so I decided to just make one of Barry's favorite meals... meatloaf. Nothing fancy, but I had to throw a twist in there somewhere, so I added red food coloring to the water I cooked potatoes in, and we had pink mashed potatoes! Kind of fun! The girls all jumped in and helped me get dinner together this year; Kayti helped cook, Megan helped with the table. I forgot to take pictures of the table before we ate, but I did get a shot of it afterwards...


Josh actually had a date this year! First time ever I have not had one of my kiddos home for Valentine's Day... well, he was home for part of it (we actually ate before he left, but he didn't eat with us). He did make it home in time to dive into some dessert - brownie bites.


I am so thankful for my family, and the opportunity to have a special evening with them! Hope you had a great night, too!