Valentines Decorating

Ever notice how Bare Naked the house looks after all the Christmas stuff is put away? Well, it has been a whole 2 weeks that the Christmas decorations have been taken down and I'm kind of missing all the glitter and tinsel. And it's only like a month till my other favorite holiday comes around, Valentines Day! I'm kindof in the mood....and  I want to get a lot of use out of all my stuff..... sooooo.....does it sound like I am rationalizing? Well I am.. just shoot me now.

I really love all of  the cute conversation hearts and red chocolates boxes and cupids that make up the holiday of love.  I've got a lot of cute stuff stashed away in my February decoration bins. I guess, it's kind of early but who cares...I'm gonna get them all out and decorate the place up again. 

I used to always buy my kids a valentine of some sort as they were growing up. Somtimes it was just a baggie full of chocolate kisses. Sometimes it was a little toy or something. But the last few years I've mostly spoiled the grandbabies. This year I have some sweets stashed for my adult children from Christmas clearance racks, (but I better stay away from the Almond Roca, that stuff is lethally addicting!) I also had cute stuff I bought for the girls after Valentines last year.  I keep them all year long in a deep closet in my bedroom. There is an assortment of gifts any given time of the year. It's fun to go and see what I can find when I need a quick gift for a friend.  Sometimes I forget the cute stuff I have stashed there.

I love to change the pictures and decor of my gallery wall to match the holiday. I change the black iron cones to different flowers and greenery as well as adding seasonal doo dads to them like sugared valentine hearts and red berries. And I love getting out my seasonal placemats and runners for my kitchen table.

I like the kitchen to look cheery with a few new hearts and flowers! It helps my attitude when I have to go out into a frozen world every day. I keep this LOVE lamp lighted all month. It's a fun night light when I wake up in the night with insomnia or just coming home from work. 

I found this cute cookie sheet at Hobby Lobby last week for 30% off with a coupon. I had forgotten my coupon and the lines in there were really long. This nice man behind me offered to look it up on his phone and the lady at the checkout took his phone and copied the code from there and gave me my discount. Wasn't that just so nice of them? People can be so sweet. I felt sorry for the guy having to wait in that long line with his daughter to buy stuff for a school project. Yuck, I remember those days well. Been there, and DONE THAT! (times 4)

The valentines cookie sheet will be a fun activity for my students at school and for my monthly family dinner at my house with all my kids. My girls will love decorating some sweet sugar cookie designs.  I'll have to be on the lookout for some really cute valentine candy. At last Sunday night's dinner everybody was commenting on my cute candy bowls. And I can't really just leave them empty now can I?  Megan (my 2 year old granddaughter) must have found all the bowls herself and had these little chipmunk cheeks full of candy everytime I looked at her.  Boy I bet I'm in trouble for that!

This time of year our family also likes to make a pilgrimage down to Heber to go to the Crater there at the Homestead Resort. HERE is some info on it. It's one thing we did very soon after moving here to Utah. We went snowmobiling and then afterward bought tickets to swim in this natural hot spring where a crater top is built over it. It is so fun to go there, get into your bathing suit and run, freezing as fast as you can from the dressing rooms to get into the nice warm water. My son just went last week and took his wife and 6 month old with him. She LOVED it! He said she was cooing. My husband and I went last January. It 's a very fun getaway for about $8.00 bucks. But you have to call ahead and make a reservation. Everything is steamy inside and everyone we've ever met swimming or doing a scuba dive or a lesson there is always in a jolly good mood. 

So here's to finding the fun this Frozen January. And heres to hoping it warms up real soon. Recess duty is really no fun when it's 20 degrees outside! I'm SO GLAD my nice teachers didn't make me do it today. We stayed inside and played Heads Up 7UP instead.   Cheers!