Valentines: A Twist and a Strange Discovery

So this year for Valentines Alpheus spent the day coughing, sleeping, coughing, taking medicine, freezing, coughing, sweating, and more coughing interrupted by a doctor's visit for some medicine and our family valentines celebration.

Here are the girls coming in for the reveal.  We had planned to have a frugal valentines and just buy steaks and shrimp for a wonderful dinner and enjoy the day at the pool together.  Since Alpheus was feeling so poorly and couldn't do anything to make a special day of it, he sent me out to buy some more traditional gifts.

(Lydia with the ladybug/hearts socks Mary bought for her and the rest from Dad and Mom.)

That was the twist to this year!  In all 12 years of our marriage I have never bought the valentines gifts. Early on I did buy a card for Alpheus, but now we just tell each other without paying $5 for a card we feel to guilty to ever throw away. LOL   Actaully each girl had bought one gift for another sister and then I completed the gifts with balloons, a dozen roses divided between us, and of course candy.

(Lydia bought Mary a bag of chocolates!)

Poor Mary was also not feeling well so she didin't enjoy this as much as she has in the past, but she did her best to hang out with us. I didn't get a shot of any of us at dinner, but Mary was able to join us for dinner and loved the steak and sweet potato!

(Hannah bought Sarah one large chocolate heart!)

(Sarah knew Hannah would love animal themed chocolates!)

 

(Alpheus and I shared a ballon and our favorite chocolates - caramel and dark chocolate Ghirardelli.)

I enjoyed writing personal valentines on the balloons!  One side says Eva loves and the other says Alpheus loves... On the girls I wrote I Love You and signed Mommy on one side and Daddy on the other.  I really like this idea and will probably repeat it!

My wonderful husband grilled the shrimp, steaks, and sweet potatoes for us even though he was still feeling pretty pitiful.  I made a pasta salad, cut some raw veggies for the girls to dip, and cheddar garlic biscuits.  Mmmmmmmm!

So what was the strange discovery?  We discovered an easy way to keep the cat downstairs without resorting to shutting the door- helium balloons! The cat refuses to come upstairs since I brought in the balloons.  LOL I put him in the cage when I was bringing them in. Then I carried them upstairs, let the cat out and didn't really think about it again. I was afraid he would want to play with the ribbon at the end of each balloon, since he loves string of any kind.  A few hours later the girls showed me how they would carry him up and by the time he could see them on the table he was clawing their arms to get away. Slightly painful but soooo funny! Has anyone else had this issue with a cat?  So I may invest in a weekly balloon to keep the cat downstairs! I wonder if he will get over it after time.  Very strange!

I am thankful for my family and the love we have for each other.  It is truly a blessing from God.

Happy Valentines, DH!  I love you!