A House of Hagfeldt's: What's the deal-eo

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. I saw a few "I love you's" to loved ones on FB, but I also saw alot of "Down with Valentine's day and anyone who likes it is terrible person!!" Since when did a holiday that celebrates love become such a hated holiday? Why were people focusing so much on being so against taking an opportunity to say I Love You to someone and instead, trying to justify it if they did in fact do something nice for their spouse or heaven forbid, their children?!?! I couldn't believe people's comments on one of my friend's FB page about how they refused to do anything special for their kids. No love notes, no heart shaped PB&J's in their lunch box, no special treat, or even a fun home made valentine to give to their kids classmates. Now granted, when I was a kid, all we did in school was pass out those paper valentine's that you fold in half and there was no candy taped to it, just a "to and from" written on the inside and that was fun and exciting in and of itself. We would make paper holders to hold all the valentine's in and we didn't expect anything grander than that. Times have definitely changed, due to commercialization and probably due to Pinterest and the feeling women have these days that if they aren't always doing something on Pinterest, then they're less of a woman, but can I just tell you how much fun my daughter and I had picking out what Valentine we wanted to make together, to pass out to her classmates! We kept it simple and she told me after school everyone loved hers because it was goldfish.

And who doesn't like goldfish?!?! My hubby for one, but what does he know?!?! :) Allie got a few good old fashioned "just paper valentine's that had 'to and from' with no candy attached" and she loved those just as much as anything else! The pattern I was seeing yesterday was it's terrible if you enjoy and heaven forbid, want to celebrate Valentine's Day. Well, I disagree. Of course you shouldn't wait until Feb 14th to tell someone you love them, it should be done everyday and whenever you want to say it, but what harm can come from making a day special for the people you love and enjoying the time you have with them because life is too short to get caught up in the wrong perspective! I even sent Chase to school with Valentine's for his classmates (small cups of play-doh) and his teachers, and even his bus drivers. I love opportunity's to tell someone that I wouldn't normally have the opportunity to say to often, that I appreciate them and all they do for my kids. Chase's bus drivers are wonderful and they love Chase. His teachers at school are wonderful and they love Chase. The thing is, Chase has NO IDEA about holidays, he is totally clueless to all of that, but just because his autism stands in the way of that, doesn't mean I'm not going to let that stop him from having a normal healthy experience with the holidays.

Thursday night, Eric took me out to Bambino's, a great Italian place, and we enjoyed the ambiance of it all. And Chase came home with this paper from school.

I imagine Chase's teacher probably told him what to write, but I still love it so much.

And Eric beautified our downstairs bathroom and I LURVE how it turned out!

It's a small half bath and I love that he put a ribbon on the door :) He's so talented and creative.
And he's the one that gets to help Allie with her fractions, and actually remembers math "stuff" thankfully!