Valentine's: yaaaaay, favorite holiday of the whole year!

It's early on Valentine's Day, and I'm already loving this day so much, just like I always do.  I know some people prefer other holidays, and I won't say that I don't adore Christmas and Thanksgiving, but Valentine's Day?

My true love.

This is the first year in about one hundred years that I didn't make my own cards. Only because I found a box of vintage reproductions (all in one luxurious pile at left) and decided to take a short-cut this year.

Still it was hours of writing and addressing, fewer hours than normal when construction paper, doilies and glitter are involved. But still, hours.

Hours of thinking about my friends and how much I love them. Hours celebrating my own good fortune.  

Followed by a few hours in the kitchen, making treats to pack and give.

For me it's the purest of all holidays.  I know that may seem crazy, given the pressures associated with it, especially if you're not partnered up or you can't afford the gazillion-dollar diamond-encrusted long-stem roses or whatever you think you have to give your sweetheart. It isn't the big stuff that matters. It's just the saying.

Saying I Love You to the people you love.

Saying I Love You to you.

XOX on my favorite holiday of the year. Wishing you love and sweetness and friendship today and always.