Valentine's Day Redux

I love Valentine's Day. I always have.

'Ever a red fan I've always loved the "look" of the day. I'm not really into chocolate but I've always indulged in it on Valentines'...such a treat. When I was in school receiving male attention and tributes on Valentines was always the topic of great anticipation and My Beloved has always been very good with Valentine acknowledgements of varying sorts.

Then came Elementary School for our kids and the hateful practice of having to produce a Valentine for every child in the class . At first I looked forward to it...assembling all manner of materials for making home made, charming cards en masse. Darling Daughter was having none of it. She wanted regular old buy them at the drugstore commercialized  cards.  "Just like the ones everyone else was giving out!". Once Number One Son was having to produce cards too (nothing like a list from the teacher with every student's name on it to really apply the social pressure!) I began to dread and despise the day.

With all of that now behind us I find myself in recent years coming back to enjoying February 14th again.

Yesterday's celebrations were particularly fun. For dinner I made Lasagna (its red and everybody LOVES it) and a very decadent Devil's Food chocolate cake with a fruit and nut filling and tons of glossy, chocolate icing.

A rich red wine topped the whole thing off nicely as did the kid's happily cleaning up after dinner.

My Beloved brought home flowers that Darling Daughter artfully arranged...

We even enjoyed the whole thing in front of the television watching the Westminster Dog Show. (I'm a big stickler for nightly Dining Room dinners so moving to the TV always sets a meal apart around here.)

For the kids, My Beloved and I had bought a red rain coat of sorts for Hudson in which he closely resembles a white, fluffy version of the Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood's outfit and of course also a Giant Bouncy Living Valentine. We had arranged little packets of Valentine's chocolate and floral scented, red, "Stoop and Scoop" bags for delivery to each of them by the Giant Valentine himself.

It was great good fun. Even though, right before dinner, while out walking the dog, I slipped on the flash frozen sidewalk and tried to "save myselfe" by slamming my left brow into the pavement. You'd almost think it was on purpose because the event yielded a thematically consistent Valentine's Day shiner!

I also did some damage to my right wrist. Not good for knitting! It seems better today though and to get it moving I even did a couple of rows of slow stockinette this morning.

I had been hoping to have the vest for My Beloved done in time to make it a Valentine's Day present but I didn't make it.

I'm close - the back is complete and I'm only a few inches from decreasing for the armholes on the front.  An assembled, blocked vest ready for him to wear was a couple of days away before I hurt myself. Now, who knows. As long as I can knit a bit I'm not going to become despondent about it

I hope your Valentine's Day was a good one (shiner free!)

Thanks for dropping by today!

P.S. I should note - Darling Daughter has come around from her anti-homemade card stance. This year she made lovely valentines using the same method as I did last spring on note cards for my Mom.