Somewhere along the way, in our home, Valentine’s Day dinner somehow became…a family dinner??
I know, I know! The idea behind a romantic dinner is to get AWAY from your kids and have some alone time, and this isn’t an argument against that! This is the story of how we accidentally started doing a fancy Valentine’s dinner, at home, with our kids.
Three years ago, we had a new baby and a four-year-old. Valentine’s Day was on a weekday, and the baby certainly wouldn’t be letting us out of his sight to go on a date by ourselves, so I decided to make the fanciest, most fun at-home Valentine’s dinner I could for all of us.
I bought some steaks and sides, and let the four-year-old help make cookies for dessert. (Don’t think this was all lighthearted and fun. If I remember correctly, my patience was thin in the kitchen between baby-wearing a six-month-old and reminding my four-year-old to not lick the spoon every. single. second. Anyways, we made it through the day and had a decent dinner ready by the time my husband got home from work. He took the boys and put little polo shirts on them, while I set the table with candles (unlit for obvious reasons!) and nice dishes, including a tiny glass jelly jar for the four-year-old to drink out of to go with our nice glasses. I quickly threw on a nice outfit (a pretty big deal for a stay at home mom with small children!) and we just treated it like we were in the fanciest restaurant imaginable! I don’t think at the time I imagined we would ever do it again.
Fast-forward a year, and guess what?
The now five-year-old remembered and COULDN’T WAIT for our fancy family Valentine’s dinner! He had a shirt picked out, and dessert all planned: a heart shaped cake. Once again, Valentine’s Day was in the middle of the week and once again, the baby wasn’t letting us go out of his sight (we didn’t go on a date alone until he was two!), so we just went with it. Suddenly, we had ourselves an annual tradition and yes, the kids were equally looking forward to it the next year too. My steak cooking skills have improved, and one year I even made homemade yeast rolls for the first time! The sparkling cider in jelly jars continues to be a hit with the younger crowd.
