"You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound" Psalm 4:7
If you have followed my blog you know that I love family traditions. In a nutshell, I think it is important to have things that you do only as a family. I would encourage you to go out of your way to come up with or copy ideas that can make your family times special and memorable, especially around holidays. I am always pleasantly surprised at how excited even my older boys are about our traditions.
The true origin of Valentine's Day is not easy to find. Who was Valentine? One thing that is for sure is that this day commemorates a martyrdom. History records that a young priest, named Valentine, was beheaded on Feb 14, A.D. 269 because he refused to renounce his faith in Christ. I think it is interesting how the St. eventually was dropped from St. Nicolas Day and St. Valentine's Day. I also think it is time to take them back...teach our children the true origin and celebrate in a way that keeps Christ in our celebration days, year round.
There are lots of inexpensive ways to make the day special. Just because our children will be receiving IPADS doesn't mean that yours have to!! :) Our five Valentines will wake up to pink heart shaped pancakes and pink heart marshmallows in a cup of hot cocoa. Tim has always planned a scavenger hunt (clues on hearts, of course) for each child. They find a small surprise/candy at each clue, usually 3 or 4. Last year, Tim even had the boys running around outside! We'll share homemade cards, make heart shaped sugar cookies to take to friends, read the story of St. Valentine, and we'll call it a day...that is unless someone out there can leave me a comment with another fun suggestion!
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