A Weekend of Love

Who says Valentine's Day is only for couples? This year, I took the servant approach to celebrate this day of love.

On Saturday evening, my church hosted a Valentine's dinner for the adults in the congregation complete with catered food and fun games. I and four other single gals, including Captain Something Fun, watched the children while their parents participated in the dinner. We had seven children from two families ranging from seven months to ten years old. The children were served Little Caesar's pizza, which I've discovered children prefer over any other kind of pizza. The rest of the evening was a mixture of games, coloring, singing, and cuddling. Captain truly shined by teaching the kids some fun games and leading us in silly songs. I rather enjoyed playing with the seven-month-old, who was full of smiles.

The special project of the evening was decorating cookies. It was funny because I went in one room and mixed the icing while the other three gals kept the kids in a separate room. Apparently I wasn't fast enough because children kept trying to break in and see what I was concocting. Before I brought in the icing, I tried to lay down some ground rules. On the cuff, the ones I came up with included asking when you wanted to switch icing colors and waiting your turn. I felt smart for laying down those rules. The one I forgot was to not lick the knife and put it back in the bowl. That rule quickly got established.

One child declared that this icing was the best he had ever had. Funnily enough it was basic Pillsbury icing from Wal-Mart. I think the colors tricked him into thinking it was special.

I decorated the blue one. A three-year-old decorated the other broken bits. He immediately broke all of his cookies before decorating them. I guess hearts weren't his thing.

Most of the cookies were consumed before any pictures were taken, and I was definitely glad we waited until later in the evening to dispense the sugar. One parent took one look at his daughter and laughingly declared that she had consumed too much sugar, but he was appreciative that there was childcare so he and his wife could have a child-free evening together.

Another special moment for me was when I read a book to the older girl in the group. She chose a book of Bible verses, but told me I didn't have to read the verse addresses. Even though the reading only lasted a few pages, it was sweet to have her cuddled up next to me listening to me read.

Here's what happens when the icing colors all got combined.

On Sunday, actual Valentine's Day, I was greeted at church with a beautiful long-stemmed yellow rose by a friend. It is one of those special varieties that don't require water and last forever. After church, I drove to Richmond to watch a play with my brother's girlfriend. She teaches high school choir and some of her students were performing in a community theater production of various love songs from Broadway. Some songs were very well done and some reminded me that this was a community theater full of youth. During the first act, I kept waiting for something familiar from Phantom, RENT, Grease, or the like. Finally, I was rewarded with a song from Phantom of the Opera, even if it wasn't performed with as much emotion as the original. I got nervous at the end when I saw several people line up on the stage that they would try to close with Seasons of Love from RENT. It just seemed too cheesy to close with that. Thankfully that wasn't the case. Overall it was a good show.
After a scary drive home from Richmond in the snow, I stayed home and enjoyed a couple of cookies to finish out my Valentine's evening.

No secret admirers. No special valentines notes. It was still a good weekend.