Decoration take-down day

Well, I finally did it - I pulled out all the tubs and started taking down the Christmas decorations. And amazingly, I finished taking them down. Well, the inside ones anyway. Outside will come later this week. So to cheer up myself, I mean my KIDS, when I was finished taking down the Christmas decor, and my house looked so sullen and bare, I got out every pink, red and purple piece of paper and decorative item - puff balls, ribbon, stickers, markers, flowers, feather boas, and more! - and I laid it all out on the dining table. I put in "A Charlie Brown Valentine" DVD, made red jello, and began the fun of getting ready for Valentine's Day! The kids were so cute making their Valentine hearts to hang everywhere. They were so proud of their creations, and it really did help us all stay cheery! Charlie was quite confused when he saw me boxing up the Christmas decor. He would look at the see-through tub and gasp and say,"Hey! Why that Christmas in there?!" I had to explain that it was time to take down the Christmas decor, but it was nice to be able to say, "so we can put up all the hearts!" He was really cute about it and was very seriously into his Valentine designing...think, lots of glue and folding. Ben and Elaina randomly came up to me with odd shapes cut out of construction paper saying, "Isn't this a good heart!" Of course we hung them...they are probably more the shape of an actual physical heart muscle...so really, they are just super smart I think. Scotty and Jack, who I tore away from movies and video games for our night of Valentine preparation were really fun and thanked me profusely for a fun night - who knew? This sort of surprised me but it should not have. Kids may act like they would rather do something else sometimes, but generally, deep down they are glad to get some downtime with the family. My neighbors keep a "family home evening" one night a week. They do something at home all together. I bet their 4 kids ranging from 4 to 17 will remember this forever and look back on these evenings with fondness. And I also bet this helps to keep them close. We do not have a specific night set aside as they do, we have a couple nights that find us all home together right now. But as the kids get older and have even more commitments and are driving themselves to those places and have more freedoms, I bet you will find me instilling a designated Home evening for our family. After all, we have fun together, and I need helpers to make all these decorations for the holidays! St. Patrick's Day will follow Valentine's!