I used to be very anti-Valentine’s Day knowing that it’s just a consumer holiday. Okay, it has Christian origins–but in modern times, the celebration is mostly commercial.
Then I had kids and I want to celebrate all the holidays! Besides, it’s the point in winter here when the cold, dark weather starts to feel interminable, Christmas was a while ago and Easter is still far away. It’s fun to have something to celebrate, although I try to steer away from the commercialism as well as I can.
But you needn’t spend tons of money to have yourself a nice little celebration, so here’s what we got up to on Tuesday!
For school: Little e had preschool on Tuesday, and I sent him with some cute little valentines for his classmates. The download was $3.50 on Etsy and a bag of dark chocolate kisses to tape on was $4, so it didn’t break the bank 😛 Originally I wasn’t going to do anything, but when some moms showed up to Baby&Me on Friday with valentines for the other babies–I knew I needed to level up, haha!
For the kids, from us: I made paper hearts and bought Richard Scarry books for the toddlers since they are obsessed with books that have diagrams and show how things work. Also, a teether for the baby. I put them by their breakfast plates so they woke up to a little surprise.
Valentine’s Day activity: On Monday we made paper hearts for our close family members. e and A decorated them with crayons, and we sealed them up and mailed them. We talked about how mail gets from place to place as e had lots of questions!
Valentine’s Day treat: I was going to make sugar cookies and use up some of our colored sugar leftover from Christmas cookies–but we still had leftover chocolate cake from little A’s belated birthday celebration, so we ate that instead 🙂
From Eric, to me: Some new indulgent skincare for yours truly from one of my favorite holistic makeup brands, 100% Pure.
From me, to Eric: An afternoon out climbing while I watch the kids. Eric used to work in the Carleton bouldering cave but hasn’t been climbing much in recent years.
This weekend: We’re going out to dinner at one of my favorite Twin Cities restaurants tomorrow night while my mom puts the kids to bed. Eric has never been to this spot before, and I’m excited for him to try it! Also, they have crab *swoon* on the menu right now so I already know what I’ll be getting. Girl loves her seafood (and unfortunately lives in the worst spot in the world for that lol).
What did you get up to for Valentine’s Day in 2023?
xx Claire