Call us boring or too practical or unromantic but we really don't do much to celebrate Valentine's Day. Perhaps it's because our anniversary is less than a month away. We try to enjoy date nights several times of year (and at least a couple at nicer restaurants) and I guess it just doesn't appeal to go out on the busiest weekend of the year. Often I cook a nice meal to be enjoyed after the kids are in bed, Andrew often suprises me with a sweet card or beautiful flowers but really, it's just not that important to us.
And so, I find myself at a loss. The boys are getting to an age that they understand holidays. They had a party at school and they know it's Valentine's Day. I feel we should do something for them to make that day special, but I'm not sure what. What do you do (if anything) to celebrate with your kids? Any ideas? We are making Valentine cookies and crafts today but I'm thinking of something special for the actual day.
I'm really not "bah humbug" about Valentine's Day, I enjoyed hosting a kids' party a c0uple of years ago and I do love my husband. :) We just really don't make it a big deal - if we celebrate, fine; if not, that's okay, too.
On another topic, I'm so excited that the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics are tonight! We are planning to let the boys stay up to see Kazakhstan come in with the parade of countries! What fun!
7 comments:
My theory of Valentines Day is it's a lose lose situation for any couple. The girl has way too high of expectations for the day and the guy has almost no chance of meeting or exceeding them. Both are disappointed at the end of the day.
Most years we would celebrate as a family. It was never a HUGE deal just on the day have a little more of a special dinner (such as homemade chinese) as a family, red table cloth and candles on the table. Also usually a special dessert (I made a reese's peanut butter cup cheesecake a few years ago).
I think it is more fun to keep it low key, then there are no expectations. Anything extra makes it special.
I usually do a few things to show some extra "love" around Valentine's Day. Usually it's heart shaped food, playing a game together.... Nothing extravagant. This year I'm giving them handmade valentines with special notes that I'll read aloud to everyone and probably heart pancakes for dinner.
Sean and I are lame when it comes to Valentine's Day. I do love him, though:)
Well, you could go with the "we had valentines at school" idea and then pick up the "olympics weekend" theme and do something special relating to that...
I have thought about it, too, but I am not sure -- maybe just a big cookie with red hearts on it? Dunno.
We are still trying to figure out all the holiday stuff too. This year I am just giving them a Valentine candy box when they wake up on V-day. It is very small and has a picture on each box special to what they enjoy. That's it.
Our kids our teenagers or older, so we are trying to put the focus back on mom/dad :) !! You can take the commercial part out of it, and when they are little then just making homemade cards; heart shaped or red foods; teaching them to do special things for others (like make their brothers bed or water the dog without asking)- just a time to reinforce putting others first; just make it fun & a good, simple way to teach what love is; and a chance to talk about loving them, what it is to love in a marriage, and God's love.
When we were younger my mom cut a branch off a tree and stuck it in a vase. Then we all helped cut out hearts and punched a hole in the top of each and tied a ribbon threw it and put them in a big bowl. We were supposed to write on them things that we loved. We called it the 'love tree.'
Through out the day if we thought of something we loved we'd grab a heart, write it down and hang it on the tree.
I think it was a good idea, it encouraged loving thoughts at least. I'm pretty sure we were a little older than your boys when we did this, so maybe it's a better idea for next year or something.
"I love you because day" is a day when take time to tell our friends and family why we love them. We tell each other everyday that we love each other and this is a special day to pick a "because" and do something related to that.
For example, "I love my sister because she watches me play video games when I ask her to." Okay, so what can you do/make for Kayla that tells her that? "I can let her pick out any game she wants to and play it with her."
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