Valentine!

I saw this idea on pinterest.  You take paper and write words that describe your children.  I didn't get out the mailboxes this year, so this was a great replacement. It was fun to see their faces and then to read all the words to them. Xiana got to have her first school Valentines exchange.  She painstakingly wrote every name of all 28 classmates in order to distribute them at school. Then, when she got home, she read and reread all of her many valentines.  I remember those days so well. I loved Valentine's.  I think it was a hard day for my mom. It's so ironic, when dad was alive, mom never cared much for Valentine's day.  She liked to go out a few days early and generally thought the flowers were somewhat silly.  It's remarkable the things we all take for granted.  We had mom, Garrett, and Kelli over for a fondu dinner.  It was delicious and wonderful to be able to have everyone together.  Brian and I went out alone on another night.  We had veggies, bread, and cheese first, then I brought out oil and broth for the pork, shrimp, steak, and chicken.  I had noodles for the broth, but we were so stuffed there was no way we were going to make it. Then, for dessert we did fruit and coconut wafers in chocolate fondu. It was so much fun. It took a long time to eat.  The kids were over it pretty quickly, so I put on a movie for them so that we could enjoy the rest of our dinner.  I made about 5 dipping sauces that were delicious.  All in all, it was a very nice Valentine's Day.