I’m trying really hard to use holidays as an opportunity to create memories, teach, and draw our family together. This is a huge step forward to how I’ve felt about them a year ago – a reason to store more stuff to pull out for a few weeks and then have to clean it all up. I’m still not big on decorating, but maybe that will change in time too.
Earlier this month we focused on ways we can show our love. Emily and I sat down together and drew up a little list and Andrew added some suggestions at dinner.
The Friday before Valentine’s Day I introduced Emily to the world of potato stamps during Nathan’s nap. We made placemats for our upcoming Valentine’s Dinner. Emily quickly took over and did it all by herself which was so fun to watch.
On Sunday Andrew made a cold strawberry soup with raspberry garnish. Emily waited all week for us to use the strawberries in the fridge for this special meal. While Andrew did most of the work, Emily helped me set the table and enjoyed a few strawberries and then jumped in to help finish up the garnish. She also wanted me to take pictures of her showing me her food.
Andrew lit the candles for our dinner – we turned the lights on and off all night so that we could switch between seeing the candles and seeing everything else – and then we went around the table and talked about the things we love about each person in our family.
After dinner we gave Emily a small box of chocolates. She thought it was a shaker like at story time at the library and was really excited about it. Then she opened it and carefully chose one piece of chocolate and then requested the rest to go into the freezer so they wouldn’t melt.
It was a simple celebration, but one that warmed our hearts and made us grateful we are Jacksons.
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New Beginnings
Moments
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