Valentine's Day! What are your 'family' traditions?

[Jen841]

Breakfast today - heart shaped pancakes b/4 school
Dinner tonight - table all set in red, Papa John's Heart Shaped Pizza, Salad (with beets on it) and heart shaped ice cream cake

Gifts - new water bottles for all and new books.

[crl]

A book for each kid. That's it.

Catherine

[jellibeans]

Heart shaped pancakes, a Star Wars heart w/ candy in it for ds1 and a train for ds2. And I am making pasta tonight so thats red. Then I think we might go get ice cream.

[ourbabygirl]

Happy Hearts Day!

Just keeping it simple this year since the kids are still young and don't expect as much... DD (3) got a box of Lucky Charms that she's been wanting forever ;), and DS (1) got a little FP musical phone. He's so cute- sitting next to me in his high chair, pretending to talk on it. :)

Breakfast will probably be pancakes or whatever else DD wants, and dinner will be a home-made heart-shaped crust pepperoni pizza, some sides, and fondue for dessert.

[KpbS]

With their Valentine cards, I leave a couple of chocolates, a package of sweetarts and a stack of books (from the used bookstore ;) ).

[TwinFoxes]

I said "Happy Valentines Day" to them. ;) I also happened to buy them each a book over the weekend, and decided to give them to the girls today, otherwise they would get nothing. This is not a big holiday for me at all. Grandma sent them each a box of stuff though.

I wouldn't even know how to make heart shape pancakes...do you have a mold or something? Or just shape them when pouring the batter?

[lhafer]

We really don't like this holiday in my house. But, since it is so commercialized now, I will get some Chocolate pearls for DH to give to the girls tonight. No cards, unless DD1 wants to make one for her dad.

[artvandalay]

We don't have any. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day as a family.

The boys will have their parties at school and bring home tons of candy, heart pencils, and other random stuff that will keep them happy.

DH and I usually exchange cards... he'll probably get me flowers or chocolate. We have karate tonight so we can't even go out to dinner.

[Twoboos]

DH bought us some heart shaped cookies.

DDs will get a AG pet carrier that was held back from Christmas once I saw how much other stuff they were getting!!

If I go out today and see some chocolate I might get some.

Other than that... I wouldn't say we have a specific "tradition."

[lizzywednesday]

The last 2 years, DD and I have given DH a special present.

Last year, we gave him a framed photo of DD in her "Valentine's" outfit (a Christmas gift from MIL) ... this year, we gave him a card that DD "signed" in crayon and a bin of peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's.

We also bought flowers & heart-shaped cookies at TJ's last night.

As for traditions ... my DAD gives me a heart-shaped box of Russel Stover candies every year. This year, he sent a heart-shaped box of M&M's for DD.

It's not really a big deal for me, frankly! (Though, the years I do make it a big deal I tend to cook. Steak. Or riff on the recipes/ingredients in Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/New-InterCourses-Aphrodisiac-Cookbook/dp/0965327523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329228960&sr=1-1) which can be a LOT of fun!)

[lablover]

I gave DS a card, small boxes of chocolates and sweet tarts and 2 packs of baseball cards. DD received the same except for a small stuffed animal instead of the baseball cards. The kids enjoyed giving us cards they had made at school and with grandma.

The kids are not allowed to give out candy at either school so I don't have to worry about candy overload anymore.

[carolinamama]

Heart shaped food. Pancakes, sandwiches. rice crispy treats etc. Except DS2 is throwing me off my game - he requested a Christmas tree shaped PB&J for breakfast instead of a heart. Oh, well. DS1 is playing along anyway.

We make homemade Valentines for eachother. DH had the kids make the sweetest one for me that has a lot of meaning.

[kristac]

We are doing heart shaped cinnamon rolls for a snack after school (would have been breakfast but I didn't have time to get supplies). For lunch I carved a heart on top thier sandwiches and cut thier strawberries into hearts. I also put a valentine from me in thier lunchbox. Then after they get home they will follow a heart trail (chalk hearts in the driveway- paper hearts inside) to thier bedroom door which I covered in paper hearts. I left a valentine, some chocolate covered pretzels, and a balloon on thier beds. For dinner we are having pizza with heart pepperoni's and for desert we are having heart shaped smores. (hopefully- I couldn't find the heart shaped marshmellows so I'm using heart shaped peeps instead....)

Links for door, cinnamon rolls, pizza, and smores courtsey of pintrest.
http://pinterest.com/pin/45669383691046800/
http://pinterest.com/pin/45669383691163786/
http://pinterest.com/pin/45669383690998683/
http://pinterest.com/pin/45669383691158618/

ETA- I also "heart attacked" a dear friend's door today while she was at a radiation treatment and left some heart rocks in her garden that the kids made for her.

[weech]

This is the first year DS has any idea of what's going on, so it was sort of fun to do little stuff. We got up and DH made everyone breakfast. We watched a show with DS, and then DH gave me my present (some sugar free candies and a card) and I gave him his card. DS will get his presents tonight after daycare. I got him some books, coloring book, some Mickey Mouse flash cards and M&Ms all in a heart-shaped basket. Then we'll go to dinner at TGI Friday's (we're on a budget :)). I'm planning to make DH some chocolate fondue after DS goes to bed with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows and rice krispy treats as dippers. We couldn't afford the Melting Pot this year, so I figured I'd try to bring a little Melting Pot home! :love-retry:

[sarahsthreads]

DH and I have always gotten takeout Chinese for Valentine's day. When we first started dating in college, we had no transportation and very little money, so take-out Chinese was our first Valentine's Day dinner, and it became Tradition. :)

Anyway, tonight because I have rehearsal in the afternoon and then have to go straight to work, we can't even do that. Takeout subs for DH and the girls, I'll run through some drive-through in between rehearsal and work. Yippee!

I bought each of the girls a tiny heart box of chocolate (they may have 4 actual pieces of chocolate in them?) and made them each a card that I wrote mushy stuff in. (Inspired by elily, I decided to do something more meaningful than a store-bought card that I just signed my name to. The cards say some of the specific little things I love about them and how they light up my life.) DH is also getting a mushy handmade card and a tin of chocolates with Darth Vader on the front. (Because nothing says "romance" like Darth Vader!)

So really, our only tradition is takeout Chinese. But I'm planning to make the mushy homemade card a tradition too!

Sarah :)

[lmh2402]

we don't have traditions at this point - never celebrated it as just a couple. exchange a card, maybe. that's it.

but this is the first year DS is sort of getting it, so i was excited for this morning. even though it's a total commercial/hallmark holiday.

we didn't do heart-shaped food b/c i'm not messing with anything related to meals...that's enough of a struggle on a regular basis

but we did make him cards. and even the dog "made" him a card.

and he got a few small cars/trains - two from me, one from the dog, one from my parents. and he got a chocolate lollipop - which he told me is "very special and he needs to save it." so we put it in the cabinet. better watch out b/c mama likes her some chocolate...i was already wondering if could eat it and find a way to replace before he realizes.

anyway, he was over the moon with his new vehicles and came home from school with an arm full of cards from all his nursery school friends, which we put all around the playroom for him to look at

so...it's been a sweet day. kind of happy my schedule changed and i'm working from home today instead of thurs, so i got to steal a few minutes to play trains with him!