valentine's day love

 

i kind of feel like holidays are slipping through my fingers lately. over and over i have to remind myself that it's okay that i often feel like i am in total survival mode - that's just how it's gonna go during these years with small children. as someone who loves heartily celebrating holidays, i always want to make each one really special for our little family. but in my current chapter of life those holidays just keep coming and going so fast amidst all the action and wonder of our everyday!

i've always adored valentine's day, because what is more worthy of celebration than love? i sure appreciate romantic love, but there are so many other brands of love that make life so rich as well. so i made sure that we had some good valentine's day celebrating around here no matter what! we had a special family home evening on the 13th february - moses helped me make our traditional heart-shaped cinnamon rolls and when daddy got home we did a "heart attack" in our living room (by writing things we love about each other on paper hearts and sticking them on the walls!). on the 14th, ian and i had a special valentine's date seeing cirque du soleil at royal albert hall! it was pretty mind-blowing and such a fun thing to experience together. we shared our favourite treat, an oreo milkshake from byron, on the way home and exchaged some simple tokens of affection. i sure adore my valentine.

 

that saturday, i routed my long training run to go past some of london's amazing valentine's displays. in my seven miles i only got to see a little handful of all the fun festivity around london, but what i did see was pretty spectacular. london is like me - really into holidays ;)

 

i'm so grateful for all the romantic love, parental love, sibling love, friendship love, kindness-to-and-from-strangers love and heavenly love that fills the days of this and every chapter of my life. and even though i feel like i don't have the bandwidth to do a whole ton of holiday celebrating, i'm glad i could stop in the middle of february for a hot second and relish the blessing of love in my heart!