Martha Stewart, Eat Your Heart Out

Ok, my family is odd. The Valentine's Day tradition in our house when I was growing up was that each year my mom kicked us out of the kitchen, made a meatloaf shaped like a heart and surrounded by mashed potatoes, and left chocolates and a present at our places for dinner. We loved it. I found out this year that this somewhat peculiar but very fun and delicious tradition started with my grandmother when my mom was a kid! So here is my homage to the tradition, granted with turkey instead of beef. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out (pun intended)!

Even Elliot liked it, and that's saying quite a lot! Though he didn't like it as much as the heart-shaped cookies we had for dessert! Nona, Mr. Vic Victor, Vic's great nephew Travis, and Papa Pat all joined us for a Valentine's dinner. Here is Papa Pat modeling the hat that I knit for him (what a card!).

Nona came to dinner bearing gifts, including two fun balloons. Here are the kids enjoying much mylar merriment.



And in a post-Valentine's Day stupor, here is Elliot zoning out on Blue's Clues with his best pal Blue. You can see we're still getting plenty of use out of his Halloween chicken costume!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! And thanks to Nana and Atman and the Klines for the cards you sent to the kids. Elliot is still having a great time playing Blue's Clues mail time with them, taking them in and out of the envelopes over and over. Big fun!