Happy Valentine’s Day

I realize this is late, but I hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day. Ours turned out nicely, and it was a little last minute, but we pulled it off. We usually don’t make a big deal about days like these, and focus on the rest of our lives, but you can’t really completely ignore it, especially when it is your wedding anniversary, too.

R and I hadn’t talked much about what we were going to do, but as the day approached, the kids and I decided on a few surprises. We had a pretty uneventful Christmas, so that made it nice to do more on V-day. Maybe since Spring is in the air, we’re feeling a bit more optimistic and upbeat.

I dropped the ball on Christmas and didn’t do our regular gift giving routine. It’s not much, but one thing that’s really nice is making collages of the big events the previous year, which of course includes travel. It’s a nice way to reflect on the year and also to preserve the memories. What’s nice about it is the kids have a lot of fun making them, so they get involved, and R loves them. For the record, the kids did a nice job. We also got her flowers and chocolate, and the kids made cards for her, which for the record were amazing, as usual.

The plan for the day was to go to play in the snow, or should I say the kids played in the snow and I shoveled the driveway. It took me about 2 hours just to clear out the cars, there was so much snow. I haven’t even done the path the firewood, yet. Either way, we also had hockey, and then afterward some supper at Boloco. Another reason to love Boloco was they were televising Olympic hockey so we got to actually catch some of the games. We had tickets to the Dartmouth women’s hockey game, but since we had to travel early the next morning, we gave them away and opted to do things closer to home. We also got our favorite cake from Lou’s, the chocolate mousse cake, for after supper.

It was a beautiful night, and the snow was perfect. They groomed the XC ski trails and it was a full moon. The weather was cloudy and snowy all day, but by evening the clouds parted and the skies were beautiful and clear. We put on our gear and had a late night XC family ski, and at one point we turned off our headlamps and skied by moonlight. I was exhausted from a long day of shoveling and hockey, but couldn’t pass up the chance to ski with R and the kids, at night no less. Did I mention it was a gorgeous night?

We had a blast, and came home and watched a family movie, Tootsie. The kids were somewhat ambivalent about it, I think we should have gone with Harry Potter, but it didn’t really matter, because it was getting late, and we had to get to bed.

All in all, we had a nice Valentine’s Day, despite my cynicism about such holidays. It just goes to show you, it’s not what you do, but who you do it with.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Cake Creations by Shelly for the pic.