The Product of Love

Roses are red. Violets are blue. On Valentine's Day, we're celebrating with our crew!

Seven years ago Abe and I decided it was silly to go to an overly busy restaurant with overly pricey meals just because it was Valentine's Day. It was then that we started our DanFam5 tradition of making a fancy meal for the kids. They are the product of our love, so why not include them in our celebration? We pretended it was a fancy restaurant; I gave them a menu and they ate on fancy plates with fancy wine glasses while dining by candlelight. They thought it was the best thing ever.

Fast forward 7 years and we're still doing that tradition. However, last year I knew the restaurant theme had run its course. Preteens and teens no longer want to play restaurant. I still let them choose what meal they wanted and they drank from fancy wine glasses. But no pretend restaurant. Bitter sweet.

Daisy helped me decorate the napkins and set the table.

I always get the kids a little treat of some kind. Daisy took it upon herself to buy us each gifts this year. She asked the boys if they wanted to go in on them and they agreed.

She also made these super cute cards for each of us.

The icing on the cake was when the boys gave Daisy a gift, too. One afternoon when they were walking Chuey they walked to the GS25 and bought her something.

Daisy was touched by this sweet gesture from her brothers as much as I was.

We played a family game after dinner and gifts. It's an app, so even though we all had a phone, we were actually talking with each other and laughing.

We have an inside joke while playing this game about a particular body part. The game asks a question about one of us, 'You Butthole' on this particular question, and we all put in an answer and try to guess which one the actual person wrote. Immediate belly laughter when we saw each others' answer on this one.

As always, happy heavenly birthday, Steve.

[February 14]