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A few weeks ago our family celebrated Saint Valentine's Day a little differently than in years past. Since St. Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday this year, my husband and I thought it would be fun to plan a special Valentines lunch for our children vs. giving them packages of candy.
Sunday, February 14, 2016 happened to also be World Marriage Day so we incorporated this special day into our Valentine's lunch by lighting a candle we received as a wedding gift on July 12, 1997. As stated on Catholic Mommy Blogs, World Marriage Day received a special blessing from Pope John Paul II in 1993 and is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of February. This year, it falls on the same day as Valentine’s Day.
When I saw Lacy's post at Catholic Icing with her Saint Valentine's Day Poetry Tea, it inspired me to use her idea and change it up a bit for our own family fun.
On the menu we had cheese and heart shaped pepperoni pizzas (I lovingly cut out pepperoni slices in the shape of hearts and I was smiling when I saw my husband cutting out a heart in a white American cheese slice. :) ) The small pizza crusts were bought in a package at a grocery store so we just added the sauce, cheese and pepperoni.
We also had sliced strawberries that I cut into heart shapes and yummy Valentine pretzel treats. These pretzel treats are very easy to make and make great Christmas treats too!
Here is our wedding candle we lit and used as a center piece on our table. Our wedding invitation is trimmed and glued to the front of the candle with a beaded border. It is one of our most treasured mementos from our special day! I used a heart shaped sandwich cutter that I found at a local store recently to make the heart sandwiches. We also drank strawberry milk.
While we were eating, I read from the picture book Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda. This is a beautiful book that tells the story of Saint Valentine and the illustrations throughout the book are mosaics like on the cover.
Here is my family enjoying the Valentine's lunch minus our oldest daughter who wasn't able to join us since she was coming home from a church retreat.
It was a special Valentine's lunch and my husband and I were so happy to prepare it for our sweet Valentines.
Aw, this is SO wonderful!! I saw the pics you posted here and there on fb of Val Day but loved having the chance to really take a good look at all the preparations and nice little touches!
ReplyDeleteI stole your heart shaped strawberry idea for our Val Day dinner.....that was our dessert! And it's not all THAT easy to make the slices a perfect heart shape!
The heart pepperoni and all the cute little things you did here are just adorable! And the wedding candle is beautiful! I wish we had something like that from our wedding day! Did you have the candle ceremony at your wedding mass? For some reason we did not! I'm not sure why we skipped it.
Thx for sharing the pics and all the details!! This was great!
xoxoxo
"See" you soon!
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed your strawberry hearts for dinner :) So to make them I just cut each strawberry in half and then use a paring knife to cut a "v" out of the top of each half, which then makes the heart. Is that how you did it?
And about our wedding candle...when Anthony and I got married he was not Catholic (but later converted after we wed) so we decided not to have a Mass, but a Catholic "service". It does make me sad that we didn't share the Eucharist, but no one on my husband's side was Catholic and we just didn't want to emphasize the division, you know? And no we didn't have a candle ceremony at our wedding, which I assume you mean did we light a "unity" candle?
Thanks always for your visits and comments! Have a blessed day!
This is so cute, I also love that you got out your unity candle from your wedding. What a great idea and a reminder for your marriage and family what love is all about!
ReplyDelete