My earliest remembrance of Valentine’s Day we called it St. Valentine’s Day. Yes, we celebrate this holiday because of a Saint. The school day was filled with making cute heart shapes, cutting and pasting. Home was filled the week before with papers of all sorts, old and new, paper doilies, lace and ribbons.
My dad used to make wonderful, ornate old fashioned Valentines for my mom every year. He would let us kids make our own as well. There were so many beautiful things to make a Valentine with! It’s one of my favorite memories of the holiday!
We also looked forward to getting a heart shaped box with chocolates in it from our parents. It was so fun to see how special the boxes looked every year. Some of them I saved and used them to put earrings in or some other small items of my childhood.
As I got older, Valentine’s Day took on new meaning of romance. There were endless possibilities and hope for love. I was such a romantic back then!
Eventually, I would receive beautiful gifts from my one true love every Valentine’s Day. He started with a teddy bear; white with a red bow. I slept with that bear for years, until it was matted with snuggly love.
There was jewelry, ah yes! Jewelry! One of my favorite desires! There was a gold shell on a gold chain, simple but beautiful. Then there was a gold heart, because that’s what he really wanted to give me the year before. There were earrings, and a bracelet with my birth stone. Oh to be wooed with such treasures!
My favorite of these treasures from my Valentine was my diamond ring. It was 21 years ago today that he asked me to be his wife. Since then, Valentine’s Day will be forever in my heart in a way that I cannot explain. This holiday meant to remember love changed my life forever, and I have loved it more ever since.
These days, I look forward to Valentine’s Day with my family; my Valentine and our three children. Every year I try to find something special for them, along with something sweet. I still hold up the tradition of picking out heart shaped boxes when I find ones I like.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make a special time for all of us. Valentine’s Day lends itself to lots and lots of little things that can make that time very special to someone indeed.
