For a while now, I have wanted to “take an occasional trip” down Memory Lane. To recall – and document – not only memories with my littles but even from my own childhood…which is, admittedly, a bit of stretch with my poor memory. But I don’t suppose my memory is going to dramatically improve any time soon, so I best be about documenting what I can while I can. Hopefully, I will do these posts somewhat regularly. That is, if I remember to do so…..
I was thinking about Valentine’s Day – and the other “little” holidays or fun days the kiddos enjoy. And that we adults enjoy simply because our favorite little ones are having so much fun:) I have tried and tried to think about the way we celebrated Valentine’s Day when I was young. I do not remember my mom (or any of my friends’ moms) decorating for the day, or even decorating seasonal, for that matter. Maybe things were changed up every once in a while but I know, for a fact, no one had bins of decor stored away that was pulled out every couple of months. Of course, we celebrated for Christmas and there may have been a little something for Halloween when we were really young, but I am pretty sure that is it.
We did celebrate Valentine’s Day at school, but on a much simpler scale than my children did in school. We exchanged simple paper valentines. The day before we would decorate paper sacks and they sat all day on our desks’ edge just waiting to be filled with fun notes from all our classmates. I do not remember any big class parties like my children had during elementary school. I was a teacher’s aide during those years and I must admit, I rather dreaded Valentine’s Day at school. In the afternoon, there would be a couple of hours of way too much sugar, games, valentine exchanges, and just so.much.energy. The valentines they exchanged were more themed – Barbie, CareBear, Spiderman or something from the latest Disney movie. And they usually included a small piece of candy. For some reason, I remember that….and the beginning of “puns.” (Don’t get me started on cheesy Valentine puns!) The kids – obviously – loved it. But, it was exhausting. To be honest, I’m not sure they still have class parties. But, back in the day, my kids had a great time.
At home, we usually celebrated there as well. I would decorate after the kids went to bed so they came down to a heart-filled kitchen in the morning. It could have been as simple as hearts hanging everywhere from the ceiling but they thought it was grand. Ah, life was so simple then:) We would have pink milk and something that could be shaped into a heart. Pancakes, cinnamon bun, or – their favorite – toaster strudels with heart icing. As I said, we were (we are) super simple but the kids loved it. I also remember they loved Winnie the Pooh. One child in particular:) And not just at Valentine’s Day. And, yes, we watched them on VHS:) My kiddos outgrew those days way too quickly. Ah, I remember class parties at school very often included a movie – if you were the first teacher to reserve the tv and tape player. Oh yes, those were the days. I would also make a heart-shaped cake from one square pan and one round pan. Have you ever done that? I would ice it and the kids would decorate it. Of course, they would have already had more than enough cupcakes and other goodies at school, but we liked to celebrate with Dad too.
I wouldn’t say that Hubbie and I “celebrate” Valentine’s Day anymore. I did put a few hearts in the kitchen and added some pink and red to my tiered tray….does that count? We don’t exchange gifts or anything like that but we are going out to dinner with friends this weekend. On Saturday…not Monday because well, there will probably be crowds on Monday. And, let’s face it. We’re old!!:)
Trips down memory lane are fun and when I document them, I tell myself that someone, someday, may be glad that I did :). Your Valentine’s Day memories from when you were in school sound a lot like mine. I think the influence of the internet and getting peaks (and more!) into others’ home ushered in some of the decorating trends of today, one of which is decorating seasonally. Your heart shaped food sounds fun. That is something that I never did and I kind of regret it now :). Have a great day!
I think you are right. The internet and all the ways that we get “invited” into others’ homes as definitely had an influence on all sorts of things – including our decorating! And, yes, I’m hoping one day someone will be glad I wrote down some memories. One day:)
I do remember our Valentine’s Party from my childhood. We decorated shoeboxes for our little valentine mailboxes and then everyone would put their valentines in each other’s boxes. I know we had cookies and punch or cupcakes and punch…but whatever it was, of course it made us hyper. We didn’t know about sugar highs back then…at least no one told us that was what was happening. But it was fun. I remember helping my three sons get their valentines ready for their friends too. Those are all such sweet (pun intended) memories. Now, I have cards sitting here waiting to be mailed…I am way behind this year. Just haven’t been quite up to par here recently and so things have gotten behind. I usually do decorate for the seasons, and if you read my blog post today you will see what I did today. NOt much…My decorations have been MIA. So I had to get what I could today at the store. I don’t remember decorating our house growing up except for Christmas and maybe some special things at Easter, like ceramic bunnies on the table and pretty baskets with green grass and jelly beans, etc., and of course dying the Easter eggs. That’s about it. But remember, we didn’t have Dollar General or Dollar Tree or even Walmart back then with inexpensive decorations. We didn’t get stuff from China either… We often made our own decorations with construction paper and paste and crayons, oh and paper lace doilies on red construction hearts made a pretty Valentine. Those are happy memories. Thank you for sharing this today. It spawned some good memories.
Homemade decorations are just the sweetest, don’t you think? We usually made decorations (or the bulk of them) for birthdays. That was so much fun!!