Valentine's Day of Yesterday

So tomorrow is Valentine's Day but because it falls on a Saturday, at the school we celebrated the holiday today. I planned a whole bunch of games, I bought some fun treats for the morning snack, I even made cute little valentines for each of the kids who were there today. Although the noise level of the day seemed a lot higher than usual I quite enjoyed myself. It was so fun for me to see how excited the kids were to hand out their valentines to everyone. I had the Charlie Brown's Valentines Day DVD and figured they would love it because they loved Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, so why not Valentine's Day right? I'm sure that on any other day they would have sat and happily watched the whole 25 minutes of Charlie Brown's Valentines Day, but not today; because they had been told all morning that handing out valentines would happen after the rest time after lunch. So the movie was drowned out by the sound of children wrestling eachother, laughing for no reason, jumping up and down, and the constant nagging of "when will the movie be over?" So I turned it off and let them hand out their valentines, after which we just moved them along outside to run around a bit and burn some energy. As crazy and as hectic as it seemed right in the middle of the day I couldn't help but take a few moments to look at the faces of each child and see the look of pure happiness as they decorated their valentine boxes, told eachother that they loved them, and had a look of satisfaction when the heart they drew actually looked like a heart. (they've been practicing for weeks)

I found myself thinking about my past Valentine's Day experiences and remember thinking Valentine's Day was the best holiday to celebrate at school because I loved to decorate my box and write my name on each valentine and give 'special' valentines to my closest friends and the cutest boy in my class. We always took the whole day off of school and spent the day playing games, making valentines, icing cookies and watching movies. It was so fun. There is nothing better than Valentines Day as a child, I mean, who wouldn't be thrilled to take home a whole box of candy. And valentines candy was better than Halloween candy because it was cuter.

After I got home tonight I started thinking more about all the Valentine's Days in my past and it hit me that last year I was in China for Valentine's Day. I was on a 40 hour train ride from Hell going from Beijing back to Shenzhen and then from there a two hour bus ride to the school. It was miserable while in the moment but I was with girls who would become some of my best friends and it was a Valentine's Day I'll never forget. But that's not what I see when I envision Valentine's Day in China, I see the kids. I have been in a rather melancholy mood since then. I remember the cards that they made and the looks on their faces as we tried to explain what Valentine's Day was. I love those kids. Not a day goes by that I don't think about China in some way or another. The screensaver on my computer is a slideshow of my China pictures and it always makes my heart ache, but a happy ache, if that is possible. It's a bittersweet feeling as I look at pictures and remember my time there. Happy that I did it, and that I learned so much and developed so many relationships but sad because I know that most likely I'll never go back. I close my eyes and take me back there and it almost feels real sometimes, but then I bump my computer and the slideshow ends.

As I thought about all my past Valentine's Days I can remember almost every one and who I was with, the things that we did, the cards I received and the words that were said. Some say Valentine's Day is a.k.a "Single Awareness Day" and I was one of those people for awhile but this year I think I've come to realize that Valentine's Day whether you're single, married, widowed or a small child, is about letting those you love know that you love them, and I wish it came around more than once a year. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!