Valentine's Day

Historically, we have celebrated Valentine's Day in all kinds of ways. When Frank and I were first married and living in a tiny, tiny apartment in Ithaca, we had these long, boozy, romantic dinners with no care for bedtimes or tomorrow mornings. We talked for hours and gazed into each other's eyes and crunched our way home through the snow. We gave gifts of books and music. One year, Frank gave me a beautiful red and black April Cornell dress that I wear to this day.

More recently we've had special dinners and desserts and made each other homemade valentines.

This is a holiday that gets a lot of buzz in elementary school. Max will have a class party this afternoon with enough sugary treats to make even his sensible head spin.

We are really not celebrating the day as a family this year. Frank is teaching. Max has the aforementioned party and then an hour of robotics, a little breather to do homework and decompress, and then his triumphant return to his tae kwon do class after last week's toe injury. By the time we get back home and get dinner on the table it will be late and we will all be tired and hungry.

So, to honor the day, after we share our highs and lows and light the candle and slow down just enough to really see each other across the table, we will each name a handful of things we love about each other.

A small reminder to appreciate the love that is right in front of us.

Because while hearts and flowers are all very nice --

it doesn't really get any better than this.

Happy Valentine's Day, Y'all.