Valentine's Day Recap

So I heard a lot people this year hating Valentine's Day. Claiming it's a "greeting card holiday". Aaron once told me the history of Valentine's Day. I take everything he says as truth and he's rarely wrong - but I decided to look it up this year anyway. It is an interesting story. It is the celebration of St. Valentine, but which one and why? Currently the Catholic church honors three Valentines with sainthood. And all three were martyrs. But my favorite one of all is:

 One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men — his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

I think it's fun to imagine young lovers seeking out this Claudius for private little weddings. And how important he felt marriage was. I love marriage and take marriage very seriously. So therefore, in this sense I love Valentine's Day. And think it's a holiday worth acknowledging and celebrating. (And of course, like all other holidays that have religious origins, there is a Pagan holiday around the same time... I don't feel like typing the whole story but if you're really interested you can read here.)

We gave the girls little Valentines with little boxes of chocolate. And then we went to a playgroup and exchanged Valentines. Olivia absolutely loved it. She was thrilled with every Valentine she received, and she loved making the Valentines to hand out. Then for dinner I made the kids grilled cheese sandwiches and used a cookie cutter to make them heart shaped. And they got to eat on a blanket in the playroom, while watching The Little Mermaid. Basically I felt like the best mom ever. Then Aaron put them to bed while I cooked us a yummy grown up dinner. Of lobster tails, steak and salad. It was delicious and so fun.

Anyway I wanted to write this all down because last night we tried remembering every Valentine's Day we've celebrated together and couldn't remember them all. Now we won't forget this one.