Feast of St. Valentine 2016

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

As the years tick by and I feel 'in the thick of things' (and 'thick around the middle'! ha!), I don't have it in me to plan elaborate feast days. Truth be told, I can barely plan to get a simple dinner on the table. Most feast days have to be something I can put together at 9:30 at night when it's already past my bedtime and I can't hardly think.

The above sweetness was achieved with:

1. red table cloth from my mother-in-law
2. potted flowers that were given to me for my birthday two weeks ago
3. a random white doily I found in a drawer
4. the book on St. Valentine I bought years ago and pull out on this feast day
5. one bag of pink and red Hershey's kisses I spotted while grocery shopping the other day and threw in my cart
6. Love notes I wrote to our children on plain white paper and decorated with pink marker pen--having used up our last sheets of pink and red construction paper and any leftover heart stickers when we made Valentines for my children's CCE classmates

Centerpiece

Love notes acknowledging their good traits and any resemblance to saints I could think of

Bonus Reading: Mary Reed Newland wrote a reflection on St. Valentine's Day, thoughtfully provided to us by Finer Femininity. I note that even Mrs. Newland had to fend off the ridiculous (and damaging) notions of girlfriends and boyfriends in first grade, and I believe she was raising her children in something like the 1940s! I highly recommend Mrs. Newland's books, my favorite being "How to Raise Good, Catholic Children."