Valentines' Day

[flo]

this is the day after, but there is a tradition at my house I want to pass on.  Each Valentine's day, since my oldest was 2 yrs. old (and this year she will be 49 yrs. old) our three girls have recieved a valentine box of candy.  These are the heart boxes about 7 or 8" across and in the begining cost 29 or 39 cents.  This year they cost $3.99 (Russell Stovers) and two of them I mailed and the postage was $4.90 each.  Something wrong with this picture?    I continue to do this because of what one of them said during on particularly trying year. "Mom, there's not a lot in this world you can really depend on except the Valentine box of chocolates" and I have never forgotten that.  Yesterday this daughter told me her box of chocolates meant more than anything in the world to her.  It means "love" and she is exactly right.  Therefore, I shall continue this tradition as long as I am able, no matter what the cost of the chocolates.  The reason they are bought is priceless.

[Wilma]

Good girl, Flo.  If these traditions mean so much to the children, it is good to keep them going.  I hope they have a tradition with their children.  Family doesn't seem to matter much anymore with the younger ones.  This might be the little thing that keeps them on the right side.

[Jo McDonald]

Flo, that was a beautiful Valentine letter.  Family traditions are so very important.
And Wilma, family life for the younger ones, comes only from the love given and family traditions taught by the "Older ones".

The loving home and time as a family spent at  the dining room table teach a lot.

[Teresa]

My memories are of MAKING the valentines boxes.

I went to school in Pittsburg Kansas from kindergarten to 4th grade. Then we moved back to Howard.
Back then, we didn't make boxes or sacks at school. You made them at home and brought then the next day to school.
Mama would get all the stuff that we needed each year and each year she and I would sit down and decide on what we were going to make. I loved this time because we would do it together. ( or I thought so.. but now I see that it took a lot more than a 6 yr old back then could do  ) We would decide what my box was going to be. One year it was a huge house with windows and doors and a chimney. Covered in white tissue and we would cut all the red and white lace hearts out and put them all over it.. Then the slit in the side of the roof and I had the greatest Valentine box ever! One year we made a mailbox, One year we made a square car ( out of a shoebox) with the cardboard wheels etc. These were wonderful memories and even though it took lots of time and effort on her part, she always made it fun and let me feel like I did it.
Then I would get all my valentines ( picking each one carefully for each person) ready for my classmates and friends. I remember that there was this one boy I didn't like at all and I didn't want to give him a valentine, but mama told me I had to give everyone one, and I couldn't leave anyone out. So I did and he gave me one that said "I love you" and it just grossed me out so bad!  hahaha 
Then when I would get home that day from school, we would sit down and together we would go through each and every valentine and read them all. She always made a big ta-do about them. 
She passed this on to me and I did it with both my boys when they were little and in the first years of school. Hopefully they enjoyed it as much as I did.

Thanks Mama.. it's just another one of the million times you came through for me. People have always told me I am a "natural" mother and if I am.. it is mostly because of you. You were a wonderful teacher.
I love you.

[Roma Jean Turner]

  Beautiful words and memories.  Thanks for sharing them.

[Jo McDonald]

My Mama helped me make Valentine boxes too... so it has been passed down many generations, because I remember she told me that her Mother did the same thing.
I had wonderful daughters to make memories with.