Happy Valentine's Day!

We do Valentine's Day in a big way around here. It's turned into a gift giving holiday. Not quite as big a deal as Christmas, but it's pretty big!

Since D.R. would be at work for the holiday, he gave me flowers, and the girls earrings on Sunday. It's sweet that he can make them feel so special, like every little lady should. They've been showing everyone their new earrings, and announcing that they're from Daddy.

Last night after they went to bed I got to work getting the table ready. Here's what it looked like...

I know it looks like a lot of presents, but it's really all in the presentation.
The shiny pink bags had little things like hair bows, a craft, a monogrammed box of tissues, and a book. The big bag had a t-shirt and pair of sweats. The small brown bag was a bathing suit from Nonna in New York. She brought them on her last trip and asked me to give them to the girls for V-Day.

The funny thing is that when Tia woke up this morning, BEFORE the crack of dawn, she climbed in bed with me and asked if I would decorate the kitchen for Valentine's Day while she was at school. I played dumb and told her I'd see what I could do. You should have seen her face when she went downstairs and saw the table! Priceless.

Here they are digging into the goodies...

Oh yes, chocolate!

Then after school I ran to the grocery store to cash in a coupon I had for a free bakery item and got this...

You can't really tell from the picture but it was a mini cake. Just enough for the 3 of us to have a chocolate fix, and there's one piece left over. The girls loved it, and were so excited (OK, I was too!).

This was the first year I've had to celebrate this holiday without my #1 Valentine, and the girls first time without Daddy. I think I did a pretty good job of making the day special on my own, but we sure did miss him!

We hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day filled with love, happiness, and a few surprises!