I never really did. My husband always said that love should be shown every day, not once a year when consumerism is at its finest. I wholeheartedly agreed. Then we had kids. As the kids grew up, they started noticing heart-shaped chocolate boxes, long-stemmed roses, fluffy pink stuffed animals and greeting cards proclaiming “true love” all around them... but never in our home. So, they started asking why we don’t celebrate our love on this day, the most love-filled day of the year. Oh boy. Here we go. How do you tell your kids that not buying into all this Valentine's Day hoopla doesn't necessarily mean that you love each other any less? How do you tell them that you believe businesses are using our very real feelings as another sneaky way of getting us to reach for our wallets? How do you tell them your thoughts and yet not dampen their excitement of being able to show you their love? I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have the heart. [caption id="attachment_8734" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Love is sharing your strawberries with your friends."] [/caption] I didn’t want to be labelled the Valentine's Day "Scrooge." Although I don’t go for all the consumerism, I do love my family a whole lot. So, I pack heart-shaped sandwiches along with little love notes into their lunch bags. When they come home after school, we bake pink cupcakes with red sprinkles on top. We even purchase some Valentine's Day cards for their classmates. We still express our love often, but now we just add a little extra oomph on this extra special day of love. Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?