Celebrating Valentine's Day

At this point in our lives, my husband and I have given in to the fact that Valentine's Day is a family affair. Not that we don't celebrate it as a couple as well, but we most certainly don't have the kind of evenings we did before the kids came along. And that's fine, because our love created this family and it is wonderful to celebrate it as such. This year, we had the challenge of creating a fun and memorable day without buying anything new, and so far I'd say its been a wonderful success.

I awoke today to a dozen roses (from the grocery store--this is a gray area, hubby thinks they don't count as something new and I'm in no position to disagree!) and the most delicious cup of coffee I've ever had. He bought me 2 pounds of organic gourmet coffee as well as the organic beeswax moisturizer I've been wanting but won't buy myself. I'm not sure if this is what all wives want, but my wants are simpler these days and I was absolutely thrilled. My daughter handed out the valentines she made for us in computer class at school, and we put them on the fridge for all to see. As a fun treat, we decided to go visit some garage sales and I told the kids they could each pick put a present from me. My daughter brought her own money, and decided she'd like to buy gifts for us as well. Luckily, the only two garage sales we saw happened to be treasure troves--for us, anyway. At the first, my daughter found the 4 National Lampoon Vacation movies, which happen to be hubby and my favorite movies of all time. She bought them for us at 25 cents each, for a grand total of $1.00. While she was at it, she found 3 Caillou videos, which happens to be our son's favorite show, so she bought those as well for a total of 75 cents. For the $1.75 she spent, she made everyone happy! We bought my son a pair of like-new Nike sandals for 50 cents and a Caillou coloring book and Barney puzzle for 35 cents. He was very happy with his gifts! At the next garage sale, we found a Baskin Robbins smoothie maker that my daughter went nuts over. They were asking $3 but accepted $2, and our outing was complete. All in all, I think our $2.85 was well spent. :) And the smoothie maker will be make wonderful use of all the homemade yogurt and bargain organic milk we have in the fridge.

On the way home, we stopped at a charity's donation box and dropped of two bags of clothing and household items we've cleared out, so I believe more went out than came in.

Now that we're home, the kids are happily drinking smoothies and playing with their "new" stuff. I have a special dinner planned--chicken cacciatore with whole wheat pasta (one of hubby's favorites) with green beans. I will make some sugar-free brownies for dessert, and my daughter and I will melt down a few of the chocolate candies she got at her class party yesterday to make chocolate-dipped strawberries. We always have fun decorating for dinner and making a big to-do of it. Hubby and I plan to make popcorn and enjoy our new "vacation" movies tonight. And for the grand finale--last year on clearance I picked up the most hilarious red grass skirt with matching heart-shaped cococut bra. Enough said, and everyone will be grateful to know that there will be no pictures posted of this one......