Happy Valentime's Day!

As my daughter would say, "Happy Valentime's Day, everybody!" She is busy working on valentines for all of her classmates. She only needs 23, but I notice that all the kid's valentines now come in packs of 32. Shew - it's hard to imagine a classroom with 32 kids in it!

I remember loving Valentine's Day when I was in grade school. Getting all those little cards filled with candy and well-wishes from friends. I used to savor every one of them. I specifically remember being surprised by the cards from the kids that I didn't get along with - trying to get the underlying meaning of the short sentences that said "Be Mine, Valentine" or "To A Sweet Girl" - wondering if they really meant it, or how odd that this person would send that Valentine, or maybe we could get along after all!

I can tell you that my daughter is not nearly as contemplative as I was. When she was in kindergarten, we made special homemade Valentines for all her friends (okay... truth be told, I did most of the work!) I was so excited to see what the other kids would give her that I couldn't wait for her to come home from school. She walked in the door and I looked through her bag expectantly. As it turns out, she ate all the candy and gave the Valentine's away to the kids on the bus. She is a tomboy through and through!

Besides that, my Valentines memories kind of fade into the background with birthdays and other holidays where you might get flowers and go out to dinner. To be quite honest, the only Valentines day that stands out in my mind was on a Saturday many years ago before my daughter came along. My husband and I decided to have a gourmet buffet with caviar, oysters, pate, chocolates and champagne - all the fun, extravagant stuff you can never justify buying all at once. Then we went to the video store and rented all three Godfather movies. Honestly, who watches Godfather movies on Valentines day!?! And three of them at that!?! I must say it certainly was memorable!

But my favorite thing about Valentine's day when I was growing up was coming down for breakfast and being surprised by a little treat before school. Usually those candy hearts with "UR GRT" and "TOO SWEET". My mom always had a little something special for us on Valentine's Day morning. So, I pass on the tradition and have a floppy Valentine's Day dog waiting on the kitchen counter for the sleepy eyes of an eight-year-old girl tomorrow morning.

So I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day - filled with lots of fun surprises, no matter how small. (And hopefully not too many Godfather movies!)

Also - recognize this string of little cutout people on my picture above? They were from the cardboard Christmas tree I created for our cube decoration contest at work this past year! (See Deck the Halls...) I needed something for the Valentine's Day e-cards of our website at work and thought these would work well. With my new camera, I did a whole "studio" setup outside while the sun set so that the golden hearts would sparkle in the light. Not sure if you can really see tell, but it sure was fun!