I LOVE Valentine’s day.

Only because we’ve created so many traditions that I look forward to!

However, I have to admit, come the first couple of weeks in January, I am cursing Valentine’s Day.

Every year, since my babes were, well, babes, I have created their own personalized photo book. I started presenting it to them on Valentine’s Day -a symbol of my love for them:)

So, during the year I take a ton of pictures, and because I know I make a book every year, I take special care to make sure I have enough individual pictures of each child throughout the year. They often ask “is this for my book?”. It helps me be more deliberate. Right after Christmas, I start building the albums. They end up taking me much longer that I anticipate (even though I do them every year). I start complaining to Rob, “Why do we have all these kids?”, or “Why on earth did I start these traditions?”

But then, come Valentine’s Day, I know the reason why.

The kids love them.

And even more importantly, I hope they love them when they are older, and look back with fondness on them, and know they better take good care of me in my old age since I made them one EVERY YEAR!!!

But, let’s rewind a bit to last weekend.

Rob and I have some traditions too which make Valentine’s Day one of my favorite occasions!

We always pick a hotel downtown, a different one every year, and spend the night. We also go for a yummy dinner (often it’s our favorite restaurant Ki for sushi). This year we stayed at the Pantages, did some shopping, ate at Ki, and watched a movie in bed. The next day we had massages at the spa. Heavenly! We almost had to cancel due to a huge snowstorm, but we managed to get the boys to their Dad and ended up at the hotel, safe and sound. However, because I was so distracted by the snow, I forgot to take pics of our great little getaway. This is all I got:

Nice room though!

As for gifts, we have our traditions too:) I create two pages of a summary of our “couple” life in a Valentine’s album, and Rob makes me a sketch and poem. It’s just for us, so it is pretty special.

Then the festivities continue at home for the kids.

We decorate the kitchen with hearts — Rob and I each write 5 hearts per child about what we love about them.

I made cookies this year – as I got some great heart cookie cutters from some friends.

I make a special dessert.

Then we have our traditional steak and poutine dinner, where the kids get lots of little chocolates, a new stuffie (they got ugly dolls this year) and their book.

This year, we also got some Valentine’s from the kids. Sam made a great Valentine’s card. Josh gave me flowers (with a little help from Rob) and some hair tickles coupon, and Zach made me an awesome poem/song (which I will keep in my special box forever).