Celebrating with Pook

When I was younger, my father would always bring my mother a dozen red roses and a big heart box of chocolate. Apparently, some times she got funky undergarments too, but thankfully, I didn't see and don't remember that. I think she got my dad a card.

As I got older, my dad would bring me a single red rose and a small heart box of chocolates. Then, Mom made him bring my brother some too, as he was feeling left out.

When I was a teenager, after my parents divorced, I would sulk over this day. I hated it. I wanted that someone special to bring me chocolates and flowers as it was "supposed" to be.

The older I got, the more I had issues with this day. After college, I started the tradition of Anti-Valentine's day, where we'd all get together and bring a gift for under $5, have a potluck, draw numbers, hang out... but that never took hold.

As I mentioned in my previous post, hubby and I just don't celebrate this day. But, with the birth of Pook, I wanted to do something, but I didn't want her growing up with expectations of chocolate, jewelery, flowers, and the like, and depending on someone else to do so.

Thus, hubby and I decided that the best gifts are the ones from the heart and homeade. And so, we've cut out paper hearts and hung them about, and she made a super secret Valentine's Day card for Daddy (don't worry, he already knows about it, Pook isn't good at keeping secrets!). Tonight, we'll dine on Papa John's, and maybe watch a romantic comedy - as a family.

And for her little KM friends, I crocheted some simple red bracelets, and we made red envelopes (for Chinese New Year on the 18th), included a printed paper with shapes to make a pigs faces, printed out a little note explaining it all, and stamped and stickered them.

And so, I hope that I can instill and inspire in my daughter a sense of love and togetherness on this day, as opposed to what you are "supposed" to get from someone else. And when she gets older, we shall send her homeade Valentines and scrumptious homeade goodies, and let her know that she is loved.