Southwick: Our Forever Family: February Fun

Lest you think we sat around with nothing to do, here's a few fun things we celebrated this month! Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) changes from year to year. This year, it fell on Saturday, February 10. Currently, our Saturdays have been pretty busy between basketball and volleyball games, but we still found a little time to commemorate the day. Since it's the year of the dragon, I got Jonas some dragon socks along with his lucky red envelope with gold coins and a few paper fortune "cookies" to go along with our dragon fruit breakfast smoothies. Then, in between his games, we went to Panda Express for lunch. We enjoyed our chow mien noodles (for longevity) and egg rolls (for wealth). I wish I could say that we did more, but we didn't. We had plans to go to a Chinese cultural festival, but with everything going on, we missed it. In years passed, we have made crafts, but that's not really Jonas's thing at this point, so we settled for some yummy food to honor the day.

The following day (Sunday, February 11) was Super Bowl LVIII. This year saw a match up between the reigning champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the San Fransisco 49ers. Jonas woke up that morning and decided he wanted to make a football pancake. He told me that he wanted to make the day special with something little, just like I always tell him I try to do with the smaller holidays or celebrations that come our way. I, as usual, chose menu items for the dinner that night to honor each team. For Kansas City, we had brisket and macaroni & cheese. For San Fransisco, we enjoyed cioppino (a seafood stew) and sourdough bread. Desserts were quite the mash-up as well. We had Ghiradelli brownies and chocolate for San Fransisco and ice cream cones (which is surprisingly the official state dessert of Missouri) for Kansas City. All the kids joined us as well as a some friends for an evening of delicious food and incredible football. The game was pretty stagnant in the first half, but by the third quarter things started to get interesting. The game ended up going into overtime and resulted in a last second win for the Kansas City Chiefs. Jonas was pretty excited because he was rooting for them the entire game (even when it seemed like they wouldn't win).

A couple days after the Super Bowl, we celebrated Valentines Day. As Jonas is getting older, these little holidays are becoming more simple. However, each year, I place a little heart on the boys' doors every day for 14 days with something that I love about them. I like the practice of taking time to ponder on all the reasons I love and am grateful for each of them. This year was even more special because Jonas returned the gesture. One day, we were preparing the valentines goodies for his class when he asked me for 10 hearts (because it was the 10th day of the month). I assumed that he was going to write a few special notes for specific friends so I got him the hearts and went about the tasks that I needed to. Minutes later I headed toward my room to grab something and saw my door filled with hearts. I got teary-eyed as I silently read each one. I never asked him to do that. I never expect hearts in return. I do it because I want to...and so did he. He has always been a more tender-hearted and observant boy. He wrote several things like: kind, thankful, hard worker, good education, pretty, etc. He added a few "thank you" type hearts, but the heart I loved the most was the one where he said, "Loves God." I was so grateful that he saw that in me. That is what I want to be remembered for. I kept that heart and placed it on my dresser to remind myself to be that type of person who exudes a love of God. Other than our daily hearts, we no longer participate in any holiday-themed activities or crafts, but we still enjoy taking a moment to celebrate the day with little gifts and fun foods. I made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast and got a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's for dinner. Plus, I made a cute little heart pastry for dessert. I got to watch Carter and Everly that day so they joined us for our dinner and dessert. Jeff and I actually got to sneak away for a lunch date and an evening show of Fiddler on the Roof at Hale Center Theater. Casey came to the house to hang out with the kids while we went to lunch at Magelby's then Jonas just chilled at the house on his own while we went to Fiddler. I love that he's old enough to do that (and that my in-laws are right next door just in case). I loved spending that time with Jeff. Our lives get so busy that it's hard to find time to connect. I had found the tickets to Fiddler but he made the effort to make lunch happen. He is my true Valentine. He shows me that every day in word and action.