Our Valentine's Day

Blame it on lots of reasons, but Valentine's Day just didn't get the same attention this holiday typically gets at the Jorgensen house.  Beau was gone the weekend prior on an epic ice fishing adventure with his best friends from college, most of my extra mental and calendar space was devoted to IF Gathering 2018, and I was spending more time preparing my soul for Ash Wednesday and my extended vacation from social media, which also happened to fall on love day this year.  This was the first year I even purchased store-bought Valentine's, and did so two days prior to Valentine's Day.  Big mistake.  Everything was picked over, and as I did some mental math and soon discovered just how many Valentine's we actually needed between both kids and four different parties, I settled for what was left.  And you know what?  The kids were thrilled!

I was planning to recreate last year's pretty ambience around the table and Cruz's favorite meatloaf dinner, but struggled to see how it was going to fit into my week this year.  And thanks to mother nature and my spontaneous hubby, I didn't have to!  We traded a pretty dinner table for snow gear and watched the sun go down as sledded and snowballed and stumbled up big hills on campus.  It was our first family sledding excursion of winter and may be our only one if we get our wish for spring.  Then we traded meatloaf for loaded nachos at Mulligans, and cheers'ed to love and the Olympics, and deleted apps on our phones.  Our night ended with Scratch cupcakes around the table, taking turns filling out a big door-sized poster of reasons we sure love these people we get to do life with.

And while I will still admit I battle my own expectations of what to put into these holidays we get to celebrate with our kids while they're little, I'm thankful when I have opportunities to let go and celebrate in the unexpected, but just as special of ways.  And when we hopped in the truck after devouring our nachos at Mulligans, our gloves still damp from the snowball fight that preceded it, Beau said it was his most favorite Valentine's Day yet.  Sometimes, it's fun to let someone else take the driver's seat.  

But Christmas is still mine.  Let's not get too carried away. ;)