Valentine's Day

A lot of people think Valentine's Day is a holiday created by Hallmark and other stores to reel in big money.  I actually agree.  Some of those people still fall into that trap and end up spending way too much to prove they love and care about someone.  Proving your love for someone, in my opinion, shouldn't be about how much you spend on them.  I believe you show it through your actions and words.  

This reminds of a book by Gary Chapman that my sister in law B showed me a few years ago.  It's called The 5 Love Languages.  The book was originally intended as a sort of marriage self-help book, but I think it can serve in any type of relationship.  It discusses how people speak love in different languages either through words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, or physical touch.  It's your way of communicating emotionally to someone.  He says each person has their own language of how they best give and receive love.  So your heart might be filled with love from hearing someone compliment you, or maybe you don't really need that to feel loved.  You feel it more so by spending quality time with that someone.  By properly identifying which language you primarily speak, you can better communicate with someone which actions make you feel more happy and confident.  I highly recommend reading his book as a learning tool for either just you, or you and your significant other. 

I learned my primary love languages are words of affirmation and quality time.  This explains why on Valentine's Day, I would much rather do something low key and spend time with J, rather than go out and spend a bunch of money on something that doesn't even really matter.  For this V-Day, we ended up getting 18-22in of snow which made staying in even more fun.  Josh picked me up early in the morning, so we could spend the day together without driving in worse conditions.  We spent our snowy V-day playing in the snow, watching movies, baking cookies, and making home-made pizza.  He even surprised me with my favorite candy (peanut M&Ms) and these beautiful roses and infinity knot.

 Here are some of the cookies we made:

 

And here's his back porch in the almost 2 feet of snow:

And our snow angels: